Hawks end 25-year premiership drought

by RICHARD JONES

EAGLEHAWK snapped its 25-year premiership drought with a courageous two-point win over Bendigo Football League powerhouse Gisborne at the Queen Elizabeth Oval on Sunday.

With a swirly, at times ferocious, wind favouring the city end the Hawks booted three match-winning goals against the breeze in the last quarter to clinch a thriller by less than a goal. No one in the huge crowd (takings topped $44,000) left the QEO during the pulsating last quarter.

Gisbornes on-ball star Ollie Messaoudi booted a running goal at the eight-minute mark of the final term to stretch the Bulldogs' lead to 16 points.

The Hawks looked gone for all money. Enter Eaglehawk's playing coach and 413-senior game veteran Derrick Filo. Playing in the centre he inspired his younger teammates and, indeed, it was his 17-year-old son Brodie who booted one of the last, three match-winning six pointers.

First another 17-year-old in Rhys Healey booted a corker from 40 metres out on the run to cut the margin to 11 points. A tick over 11 minutes had been played in the final stanza. Then Brodie Filo cut the margin to under a goal less than a minute later when he crumbed a pack 20 metres out and sprinted into an open goal.

That was the first time a side had booted consecutive goals against the breeze at the non-favoured Barnard Street end. The grand final's complexion had changed considerably and the heat was back on defending premiers, Gisborne. The Bulldogs tried desperately to move the ball into attack but found the Two Blues' defence nigh impassable.

Derrick Filo outmarked 2006's Nalder Medallist Ryan Webster, a man 19 years his junior, in a one-on-one contest 40m out from goal.

The strength of the wind denied Filo a major but the ball dropped into the hands of VCFL representative player, Brady Herdman.

He was placed on an acute angle on the boundary line, and missed. Just over a minute later Derrick Filo was awarded a free kick for a high tackle , again about 40-45 metres out from goal.

This time he got the journey to kick possibly the most important goal of his celebrated 413-game BFL career.

With more than 10 minutes still to go and Eaglehawk's lead only two points it didn't seem the Two Blues had a big enough advantage.

At the 18-minute mark Gisborne centre half-forward Richard White had a set shot from just inside the 50m arc, but his kick bent to the right and Eaglehawk's margin was just a solitary point.

From the resultant kick-in Eaglehawk cleared the ball from its defensive 50m, and would not allow the Bulldogs another forward foray for the rest of the grand final.

The Hawks bottled the ball up either inside, or just outside, its own forward 50 for the remainder of play. Whenever Gisborne did scramble the ball out of that area it was marked on the wing and sent back into attack, or else a Hawk would win the disputed ball and bang it forward once again.

Gisborne seemed to have stamped its name on the Bendigo Advertiser Cup for a third, consecutive season (and its fifth in six years) with an emphatic second quarter. After booting two, straight goals into the gale in the first term while holding Eaglehawk to 5.5, the Dogs scored 8.6 in the second term to lead the decider by 16 points at the long break. Eaglehawk's return of just five goals from 10 shots in the opening term appeared at that early stage to be wasteful. Spearhead and Ron Best Medallist Damien Brown booted his only two goals for the day in the first term while Gisborne coach Marcus Barham completely shut down the dangerous Matt Gretgrix.

Gisborne's Shane Davis, another VCFL representative, booted the first two goals of the second term for the Dogs and then handballed to Darren Farrugia for a third. Inspirational skipper and key forward Luke Saunders got another (he finished the day with three majors) and Gisborne hit the front by a point. That margin was out to almost three goals at half-time and Gisborne used a defensive tall in Anthony Belcher as a floating loose man as the third term opened. Eaglehawk's two third quarter goals came in the first three minutes. Brodie Filo and Brad Rogerson were on-line with their shots, but from then on the Gisborne backline held up strongly. Moreover, the Bulldogs managed to kick a goal into the wind when Daniel Saunders capitalised on a loose Eaglehawk defensive kick to snap a goal from 30 metres out.

The Daniel Saunders six-pointer ensured Gisborne would go to the last change holding an 11-point lead - and with last use of the city end breeze.

But Eaglehawk refused to wilt. Gone was the spectre of Gisborne's long 18-match winning sequence, stretching back to 2001 and including grand final victories in 2003 and 2005, against the famous Borough club.

After all, hadn't the Hawks downed the Dogs in Round 9 to end that nightmare and then, more importantly, held on for a seven-point win in September's second semi-final?

Eaglehawk's players showed terrific belief in themselves and their teammates and refused to concede in the dramatic last term.

Best players included teenage half-forward flanker Healey, centre half-back and 2006 Michelsen Medallist Kain Robins, ruckman and full-back Jayden Dole, on-baller Josh Ketterer and of course the old warhorse Derrick Filo.

Filo's statistics included 18 possessions, five marks, seven tackles and the goal which won the grand final !

Gisborne was well served by Messaoudi who didn't stop running all day, defender Casey Summerfield, ruckman Jason Duff-Tytler who held control in the tapout department and defender and coach Barham whose stopping role on Gretgrix was inspirational.

Nalder Medal: Rhys Healey (Eaglehawk). VCFL Medal: Kain Robins (Eaglehawk).

19 October 2007

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