East Gippsland: Wy Yung wins first premiership since 2015

Wy Yung has bounced back from a shattering end to the 2022 season by winning a fifth East Gippsland league premiership. See all the best snaps here.

David Johnston

2 min read

September 4, 2023 - 12:09PM

The Weekly Times

Wy Yung coach Rod Bills has figured in more premiership glory at a third East Gippsland club after leading the Tigers to a grand final win against Boisdale-Briagolong on Saturday.

Bills was aged 20 when he played in a flag for his hometown, Lakes Entrance, in 1988 with his most recent triumph with Wy Yung coming 27 years after he coached Orbost to the 1996 flag.

Wy Yung turned to the experienced Bills following its shattering loss to Stratford in the grand final last year after finishing the home-and-away season four games clear on top of the ladder.

The Tigers were again minor premiers and successfully went all the way to a fifth East Gippsland premiership by suffocating the dangerous Boisdale-Briagolong forwards twice in the finals series.

“I’ve always had the hunger,” Bills said.

“I think about footy every day and I saw the group play last year and I thought I could give something to them.

“They were a young group so I got the opportunity to coach another good footy club.

“I brought a couple of blokes in from Melbourne that I knew and they helped teach the group

“It just flowed on from there.

“It has been a strong footy club for a long time and they have great supporters.

“I’ve played against them in grand finals and (flags) are hard to win.”

Wy Yung defeated Boisdale-Briagolong in the East Gippsland league grand final. Pictures: Yuri Kouzmin

Wy Yung won its first flag since 2015 in a low-scoring match, 6.11 (47) to 5.9 (39), with a strong cross breeze contributing to wayward kicking from both teams.

Boisdale-Briagolong had climbed from a bottom-placed finish last year into the grand final.

Wy Yung halfback Mitchell Toms won the medal for best on ground with brothers Jobe and Nate Somerville, who also played in the backline, other good players.

The Wy Yung team featured two other sets of brothers — Brodie and Jake Anderson and Norm, Tom and Jack Betts.

The Tigers’ miserly defence kept Boisdale-Briagolong to only five goals in both finals matches.

Caleb Calwyn, the league’s leading goalkicker, booted the first goal of the grand final, but didn’t add to his tally for the remainder of the match.

Boisdale-Briagolong led by eight points at quarter time before Wy Yung upped its intensity in the second quarter.

Brodie Anderson took a well judged mark in the swirling wind and converted from 45 metres out in the second term and Bayden Ashwood followed up soon after with the first of two goals for the match.

The margin was reduced to only seven points at the 11-minute mark of the final quarter before Tom Stephenson kicked the sealer.

Wy Yung’s Bayden Ashwood is taken high by Boisdale-Briagolong’s Jarrad Neilson.

Boisdale-Briagolong had chances to make the margin even tighter, but went astray.

Wy Yung was one of the foundation clubs when the East Gippsland league was created in 1974 and went into the grand final with a 4-12 win-loss record in the premiership deciding match.

Boisdale-Briagolong’s Mathew Simmonds battles with Wy Yung’s Dylan Wilson for possession.

The hardluck story of Wy Yung’s victory was Jai Nicholls, who broke his leg in round 16 and Boisdale-Briagolong lost one of its prime movers, Harrison Swarski, to a serious knee injury in last week’s preliminary final.

Andrew Quirk, Billy and Nick Marshall and Tom Bradshaw were named in Boisdale-Briagolong’s best players.

“Every game we’ve had they have been hard-fought games,” Boisdale-Briagolong coach Sam Bedggood said.

“We got them once in a close one and they got us once in a close one before finals.

“We took it to four quarters and that’s all I can ask for.”

Boisdale and Briagolong merged in 1982 and initially played in the North Gippsland league before switching to the now defunct Riviera league where it won premierships in 1995, 1996 and 2001.