FOR the second time in as many seasons, Bears Lagoon-Serpentine gets its crack at trying to end a Loddon Valley Football League premiership drought that is nearing two decades.
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The Bears meet Bridgewater in Saturday’s grand final at Mitiamo.
The Bears haven’t won a premiership since beating Mitiamo by four points in 1995 and will be rank underdogs against the unbeaten Mean Machine.
“We’ve been lucky enough to get ourselves through to have a crack at them, so now that we’re there we’re in the hunt,” Bears coach Damien Featherby said.
“It’s obviously going to be a massive challenge. They’ve been so rampant all year and whenever they’ve been tested, they’ve been able to put the foot down.”
The Bears suffered an eight-point loss to Bridgewater in last year’s grand final.
Saturday’s squad includes 15 members of last year’s losing team, but Featherby says the disappointment of 12 months ago when the Bears failed to win the premiership after finishing on top of the ladder won’t be used as any extra motivation.
“We’ve never spoken about last year’s grand final... that’s done and dusted, we can’t do anything about it now,” Featherby said.
“We said right at the start of the season not to dwell on what happened last year and no-one has spoken about it.
“We’d hope the blokes will get some valuable experience out of last year and the pressure that is needed to win a grand final.
“How the players use that on Saturday, time will tell, especially with Bridgewater being so experienced in finals.
“But having said that, we’ve won a few finals ourselves over the past three years.”
The Bears’ 2014 season has been a tale of two halves.
Their record after nine games stood at 5-4 and had them sitting fifth.
But since then they’ve won eight of their past 10 games, with their only defeats through that time a one-point loss to Marong in round 16 and 53-point defeat to Bridgewater in the second semi-final a fortnight ago.
“The second half of the season we’ve been able to get a bit of stability in the way we play and that has given us a chance to get through to the grand final,” Featherby said.
“We know we haven’t played the football we did last year, but we feel we hit the grand final in probably the best shape we’ve been in all year.
“Whether that’s good enough to get us some silverware, we’ll see.”
The Bears will again be without ruckman James Orr, who injured his shoulder against Calivil United in their final home and away game and has missed all the finals.
“He’s arguably the best ruckman in the league, so to not have him out there on Saturday feeding the midfielders makes the task even more difficult,” Featherby said.
While this is the Bears’ second grand final in a row, you don’t have to go too far back to seasons 2009 and 2010 when the club claimed a pair of wooden spoons.
“It’s unbelievable how happy it makes the community up here to have their team in a grand final,” Featherby said.
“Seven other clubs are going to be there cooking the BBQ on Saturday.
“But our supporters will be there watching their team play footy, which is a great position to be in.”
GRAND FINAL TEAM:
B: Tim O’Hare, Daniel Hayes, Shaun Bowles
Hb: Jack Williams, Andrew Gladman, Nick Arthur
C: Josh Martyn, Gareth Bowes, Brayden Scott
HF: Cody Gunn, Paul Olsen, Jye Sandiford
F: Mick Ring, James Rippingale, Justin Wilson
Foll: Brodie Leonard-Shannon, Josh Shaw, Nathan McNally
Interchange: (from) James North, Miggy Podosky, Patrick Ring, John McIntyre, Josh Hutton
In: Tim O'Hare, Jack Williams. Out: Oliver Collins.
PATH TO THE GRAND FINAL
Rd 1: LT BRIDGEWATER BY 76.
Best: J. Williams, J. Wilson, J. Rippingale, J. Shaw, A. Gladman.
Rd 2: LT NEWBRIDGE BY 21.
Best: J. Shaw, J. Williams, A. Gladman, T. Cartledge, Z. Stone, J. Sandiford.
Rd 3: D INGLEWOOD BY 76.
Best: J. Shaw, J. Orr, N. Arthur, J. McIntyre, J. Sandiford, J. Rippingale.
Rd 4: D YCW BY 43.
Best: S. Bowles, N. Arthur, B. Leonard-Shannon, C. Gunn, J. Sandiford, J. Orr.
Rd 5: D MITIAMO BY 10.
Best: J. Sandiford, D. Hayes, J. Orr, N. McNally, Z. Stone, N. Arthur.
Rd 6: LT PYRAMID HILL BY 5.
Best: J. Shaw, J. Orr, J. Sandiford, N. Arthur, J. North, J. Martyn.
Rd 7: D MARONG BY 3.
Best: N. McNally, J. Orr, B. Leonard-Shannon, T. O’Hare, B. Scott, Z. Stone.
Rd 8: D CALIVIL UNITED BY 98.
Best: J. Sandiford, N. Arthur, J. Orr, N. McNally, G. Bowes, B. Scott.
Rd 10: LT BRIDGEWATER BY 59.
Best: B. Leonard-Shannon, J. Rippingale, N. McNally, J. Sandiford.
Rd 11: D NEWBRIDGE BY 49.
Best: N. McNally, B. Leonard-Shannon, J. Martyn, B. Scott, T. O’Hare, J. Wilson.
Rd 12: D INGLEWOOD BY 143.
Best: N. McNally, J. Shaw, J. Martyn, B. Leonard-Shannon, T. Cartledge.
Rd 13: D YCW BY 36.
Best: N. McNally, J. Sandiford, G. Bowes, B. Leonard-Shannon, B. Scott.
Rd 14: D MITIAMO BY 17.
Best: J. Orr, J. Sandiford, N. McNally, A. Gladman, J. Hutton, B. Scott.
Rd 15: D PYRAMID HILL BY 47.
Best: N. McNally, A. Gladman, G. Bowes, B. Scott, J. Orr, T. Cartledge.
Rd 16: LT MARONG BY 1.
Best: T. Cartledge, G. Bowes, S. Bowles, J. Shaw, J. Sandiford, D. Hayes.
Rd 17: D CALIVIL UNITED BY 107.
Best: J. Hutton, O. Collins, G. Bowes, A. Gladman, S. Bowles, J. Shaw.
Qual final: D PYRAMID HILL BY 6.
Best: A. Gladman, G. Bowes, T. Cartledge, C. Gunn, J. Sandiford.
2nd semi: LT BRIDGEWATER BY 53.
Best: T. O’ Hare, G. Bowes, A. Gladman, N. McNally, M. Ring.
Prelim final: D PYRAMID HILL BY 21.
Best: N. McNally, J. Sandiford, N. Arthur, A. Gladman, J. Martyn.
TALE OF THE TAPE:
Won: 13. Lost: 6.
Average for: 108.1. Against: 84.9.
Quarters won: 47/76.
Average win: 50.0. Loss: 35.8.
Time in front: 63.2%.
