Grand final deja vu as Leopold convincingly defeats South Barwon

Leopold outclassed and outmuscled a depleted Swans side across the field in a similar manner to their premiership victory. And a new mantra was in full force.

Leopold scored another big win over South Barwon. Picture: Alan Barber

The Geelong Football Netball League grand final rematch was eerily similar to their last meeting.

South Barwon started better than that disappointing day, but the game appeared dead and buried at halftime just like the 2023 decider.

Leopold outclassed and outmuscled a depleted Swans side across the field in a similar manner to the Lions’ premiership victory, claiming a 47-point win away from home on Saturday.

The Lions’ energy and thirst for the contest was there for the outset.

It has been something that coach Garry Hocking has driven in the group since back-to-back losses to St Joseph’s and Bell Park a month ago. They call it the ‘Leopold Edge’, or ‘Ledge’ for short.

Every little win early on – be it a free kick or a one-percenter – was met by woos and yahoos that resembled a goal celebration.

The Lions backed up that verbal up by being tough in the contest both with the ball and without it.

Relentless midfielders Marcus Thompson, Logan Wagener, Tate Porter and Tom Feely – who was assessed for a head knock in the third quarter which medicos ruled was not a concussion – overwhelmed the Swans at the coalface and constantly pumped the ball forward to target men Connor Giddings and Will Sheahan, who both kicked three goals.

As Giddings and Sheahan dominated the air up forward, intercept king Tevan Nofi was impassable in the first half in particular, winning a number of key aerial contests and putting on some important spoils.

Billy Clark celebrates a goal. Picture: Alan Barber

Tevan Nofi was an intercept force for the Lions. Picture: Alan Barber

And on the outside they cut the Swans apart with their run and ball-use, with Brock Williamson the main exponent of that. He also managed to kick three goals himself to be named as Leopold’s best player.

“Logga Wags’ (Logan Wagener) always looking to dish it off so always yell out when he gets the ball in his hand.,” Williamson said post-match of one of his late goals.

“It was good to hit a couple of targets, I normally kick worm burners along the ground. It was good, just out there playing my role and just doing the team thing.”

The Swans tried to take the game on and bring the ball into the corridor, but too often their footskills let them down which led to some easy Leopold goals in transition.

Paddy Kelly and Doyle Madigan worked tirelessly in the midfield for the Swans and skipper Matt Caldow managed to kick three goals from limited supply.

Personnel definitely had some say on the one-sided result with South Barwon losing key players Taylor Mulraney (calf), Todd White (delayed concussion) and Ethan Borys during the week.

Meanwhile, the Lions welcomed three premiership players in Oliver Tate, Trent Thompson and Mitch Burgess along with returning goakicker Jake Pitt, with all four impressing throughout.

South Barwon coach Mark Neeld admitted post-game that their young group is unable to match it with the mature and “polished” Lions.

“They had a really strong side in. We can’t compete with that at the moment,” Neeld said.

“We’re not at their level of strength, we are not at their level of the way that they squash the ground in terms of defending, our ball movement is not at that level yet.

“They have got some big strong men, we have got some boys that are learning how to play footy – they are pretty good at it – we’ll get better, and they’ll certainly get a bit stronger. But we are little bit off being able to compete with some of their bodies.”

Matt Caldow kicked three for the Swans. Picture: Alan Barber

Hocking said the results show that they have the upper hand against South Barwon, having won five match-ups against them over the past three seasons, but it didn’t change their meticulous process in the lead-up.

“I think history says now that we do have the wood over them, but I don’t coach that way,” Hocking said.

“History would say that we’ve had a good run recently, but we’ve got to make sure that we stay hungry against any team. Today was a good opportunity to cement ourselves in the top five.”

Leopold is now a win ahead of South Barwon in fourth spot on the ladder, while the Swans have slid to sixth.

LEOPOLD EDGE

Hocking noticed his side hadn’t been showing their usual toughness since a halftime melee in their win over Colac.

After two convincing wins over Lara and Grovedale, the Lions lost a close one to the Joeys and were smashed in the final quarter by Leopold.

It was then that the Lions coached coined the ‘Leopold Edge’ terminology

“Two things we wanted to work on was the energy of the group, and also just getting a bit harder edge about us,” Hocking said.

“It is just going back to being us again. I think we had a bit of a dust-up in the game against Colac and I think that may have possibly spooked us a little bit.

“I think since then we hadn’t tried to be as hot around the contest and as competitive.

“We were just sort of floating through. The Bell Park game, particularly in the last quarter, we’re not a team that just completely folds up, and I reckon against Bell Park we all sort of identified that we had a really poor last quarter and Bell Park were very good, but we probably contributed to a little bit of that.”

Leopold coach Garry Hocking was pleased with their win. Picture: Alan Barber

Hocking could definitely see them return to their brand in the win.

“We got some talent back as a team but more importantly I think we sort of got our game going again which was a great result of against a team that we rate highly,” Hocking said.

Williamson felt the same way, believing the addition of several key players contributed to that.

“It was good to have most of our key players back. ‘Pitty’, ‘Burgo’, Ollie Tate, them boys back so a bit maturity in the side which was good,” Williamson said.

“I think it’s sort of helped well, we came out and hunted and played our brand of footy – which we haven’t sort of done the last probably four weeks.”

They will be hoping the ‘Ledge’ continues in full force with a defining stretch coming up against Newtown & Chillwell (home), Geelong West (away), St Mary’s (home), St Mary’s (home), Colac (away) and South Barwon (home).

Originally published as Grand final deja vu as Leopold convincingly defeats South Barwon