Navarre has won their third successive premiership in the Bendigo Bank Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League after a convincing 51 point victory over Carisbrook in the 2015 MCDFNL Grand Final
It was an opening term blitz that set up the victory as Navarre dominated at the centre bounce and took a stranglehold on possession denying the Redbacks the ball and restricting their scoring opportunities as the Grasshopper defence only allowed three entries into the forward fifty in the opening term. Mitch Whelan was the Redbacks only goal scorer when he marked a pass from Joel Riske, but this was to be their only score for the term. With Navarre having so much off the ball, the Carisbrook defence was under extreme pressure as the Grasshoppers shared the ball around amongst six different goal scorers for the quarter to take a 33 point lead into quarter time.
Carisbrook overcame their first quarter jitters and started to gain a lot more possession of the ball and had five shots on goal in succession, but inaccuracy was costly as they could only score two goals through Brady Neil and Nathan Wright. But any inroads they made into reducing the margin was nullified late in the quarter, when Jesse Hannett produced an outstanding piece of play when he bounced out of a pack of Redbacks and snapped a miraculous snap from the boundary on his left foot, and this was quickly followed by a goal to the MCDFNL Grand Final Medallist in Cody Driscoll who also threaded a goal from the same spot that Hannett had goaled from.
Driscoll goaled again on the siren as the Grasshoppers led by 45 points at half time.
Carisbrook was inspired by an incredible checkside goal from Mitch Whelan half way through the third term and this was followed by three more goals for the Redbacks through Nathan and Nick Wright and Brady Neil as they mounted as comeback and were able to win the term and reduced the margin to just 30 points going into the final term and with the momentum swinging their way, would have been confident of finishing the game strongly.
However, a left foot snap from Cody Driscoll from the first forward entry of the final quarter put to rest any chance of a Carisbrook revival, and then the high flying forward made sure of the victory when he took a very strong pack mark and kicked the sealer just a minute later. From this point in the game, Navarre coasted to victory knowing that they had the premiership cup in its keeping and the fifty one point victory gave the Grasshoppers their third premiership in succession and 41st consecutive senior victory.
It was an all-round performance from Navarre with every player contrinuting, but it was Daniel Parkin and Louis Hannett’s attack on the ball that was a key for the Grasshoppers victory, while being supported by the three Driscoll Brothers, with Cody kicking five goals and Ash booting four goals, and Josh providing a lot of drive on the wing on his way to winning the AFL Victoria Country Medal.
With the ball being in Navarre’s forward line for the majority of the game, Carisbrook defenders Kurt Bruechert and Adam Hurse were key players for the Redbacks, and were supported by Brady Neil, Jakob Tidyman and Mitch Whelan.
Last Modified on 21/09/2015 10:09