AB: Westy, another footy season bites the dust.
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Congratulations to the Strathfieldsaye Storm on their first BFNL premiership.
Simply, they were too good.
LW: Yep, far too good, but while a 55-point margin may indicate they did it without too many hassles, that was far from the case.
The Dragons dished it right up to the Storm for two-and-a-half quarters, but as always loomed as a major danger for Sandhurst, the Strathfieldsaye forward line just had too much firepower to contain.
There was the 13 goals between Stephen Milne and Sam Mildren, and another three from Lachlan Sharp and two more from Kris Lea.
While the premiership is special for all 22 players, perhaps it’s just that little bit sweeter for Sharp, Lea, Michael Pilcher and Lachlan Bonney, who have all been with the club since its formation season in 2009.
Who would have thought when the Storm entered the BFL back in ‘09 that in just their 114th game, they’d be the premier team?
Full credit to everyone involved at the club through not only this year, but throughout the whole journey that can be traced to as far back as 2005.
AB: Mildren was best on ground. One of the great grand final performances.
One of the Storm’s great strengths is they have no weak links.
Up to eight or nine players could have easily filled out their remaining five better players on the day.
Steven Baker was enormous and Shaun Everington solid for four quarters.
I was very happy for Daniel Geary to get a premiership medal after everything he’s been through.
LW: To say Daniel has done it the hard way through all his injuries to get that first senior premiership is an understatement.
Great for Daniel to share a premiership with his brother, Shannon, who has etched his name into the history books as the club’s first premiership captain.
And Milney also created a piece of club history for the Storm in becoming the first Strathfieldsaye player to kick 100 goals in a season.
But Milney wasn’t the only player to bring up his 100th goal for the season in a grand final on Saturday - Wedderburn’s Sam Barnes did it as well in the North Central Football League.
Boy, what a game that was... the $1.10 favourite Redbacks winning by a point in extra time against Charlton.
Well done to the Redbacks on four flags in a row, but you’ve also got to ponder has there been a more fortunate dynasty?
Two of Wedderburn’s four flags in a row have been won by one point, and the other two by margins of 12 and nine points.
AB: Another flag for Wedderburn’s Mark Lloyd - that’s six in a row - five for Golden Square and one for the Redbacks.
Gutsy effort by Charlton to push the Redbacks all the way.
On the subject of gutsy efforts, hats off to Sandhurst duo Tim Martin and Nick Stagg. Did themselves proud in the way they played under duress in the grand final.
LW: And speaking of injuries, it looks like the aftermath of the grand final win for the Storm will be felt into 2015 with the ACL injury to Vinnie Flood and the Achilles injury to Ash Trollop.
AB: Flood, Trollop, Nick Smith, Ben Lester and Luke Marchesi will all have delayed starts to next year.
Grand final day was a huge success for the BFNL.
Hopefully, next year a new PA system will be installed at the QEO. Felt sorry for MC Travis Fitzgibbon, he was up against it on Saturday.
Maybe the poor PA system was why we didn’t get to hear from either coach at the presentation.
LW: PA system issues or not, at the very least you would have thought winning coach Darryl Wilson would have been given the opportunity to speak.
Anyway, time to go dust off the cricket pads. Two centres thanks, umpire.