ALL good things must come to an end.
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And so it has for Bridgewater, which after seven-consecutive premierships in the Loddon Valley league endured the bitter taste of grand final defeat on Saturday.
This is not to say the Mean Machine won’t be back contending again next year, but when they take to the field in 2018 it won’t be as the club that is on the Loddon Valley’s record run of consecutive premierships.
That ended on Saturday when the Mean Machine was beaten 13.16 (94) to 8.12 (60) by Calivil United.
“Huge credit to Calivil today for the way they played and their year. They deserve their success,” Bridgewater coach Marc Lindsay said.
Bridgewater gave up a 17-point lead in the third quarter and conceded 10 unanswered goals as they were unable to wrest back the momentum from the Demons.
“Their midfield kicked up an extra gear during the third quarter and we were forced to do the chasing,” said Lindsay, who played a polished game and kicked the Mean Machine’s first goal.
“They set up the game in the last 15 minutes of the third quarter and it all started with them winning the centre clearances.”
The Mean Machine had both Deon Jones and captain Zeb Broadbent reported for striking and yellow-carded, and also conceded the second goal of the match with a free kick to the Demons’ Luke Marchesi before the ball had gone back to the centre after he kicked the first.
“It was a big price to pay in a grand final having players sent off and it’s not what we want to be about, so that was disappointing,” Lindsay said.
On-baller Tom Broadbent capped a fine season by being named Bridgewater’s best player, along with forward Ben Galea, defenders Luke Harrison, Xavier Henderson and Daniel Nalder and midfielder Zeb Broadbent.
