Another Royal Sunday

by LES EVERETT

WHEN you keep your grand final opponent's leading goal scorer to no goals you should be well on the way to a premiership.

And when your full forward and centre half forward have 12 goals between by half time and finish with a combined total of 15 you can mark out the space for the premiership flag on the clubroom wall.

Unfortunately for top WA Sunday Football League team Maddington while veteran defender Peter Valenti kept Kenwick captain Ray Irvine quiet in the grand final, two other forwards did more than just pop up for the Royals.

The highlight of the grand final was an incredible performance by Kenwick full forward Nik Woods who kicked nine goals and set up others.

Woods took some big marks and kicked some brilliant goals and caused plenty of panic with his pace, strength and harassing close to goal.

Meanwhile Tim Hull marked superbly and kicked well, particularly in the first half, and finished with six goals.

Adding to Maddington's woes was a first half injury to the team's best key defender Shane Mallard.

To stay in the game the Bulls had to win the ball in the midfield and early in the game Andrew Catalano, who kicked three goals in the first quarter, and Eddie Wilkes did that and more.

However when Les Sharp got into gear to back up Rob Stephan and Jeremy Anderton in the Kenwick midfield the supply to the hot Royal forwards was enough to ensure victory.

Grand final specialist Craig Thomas was brilliant at half back for the Royals and Dwayne Cook won the ball consistently on his wing.

Catalano, Carl Hynam and Mark Fitzgerald each kicked four goals for the Bulls and Adrian Wilkes also did plenty of good work.

The game at the beautiful John Dunn Oval in Kelmscott was played in perfect conditions in front of a big crowd and the teams produced a total of 34.14 with Kenwick winning by 24 points.

The final score was Kenwick 19.7 (121) to Maddington 15.7 (97). It was the first win by the Royals over the Bulls in 2004 and only Maddington's second loss for the season.

Kenwick has now won six of the last 10 SFL premierships. Gavin Hanley has coached the club to two flags in three seasons at the helm while his brother Michael was in charge on the previous four occasions.

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