Not one team in the top five tasted victory and the bottom two upstaged the top two in what was one of the most thrilling, and bizarre, final rounds in Bellarine Football League history.
Bottom placed Ocean Grove upstaged second placed Torquay and Newcomb (9th) won a thriller against minor premier Geelong Amateur, but that was merely the entree.
Barwon Heads denied Drysdale third spot and was playing finals until Anglesea scored late to snatch a draw against Queenscliff. The tie meant Anglesea stayed in fifth place, Barwon Heads missed the finals by half a game for the second year running, and the Coutas finished third and now have the luxury of a double chance this weekend.
And that’s not even factoring Modewarre sending off popular coach Mark Hovey with a win against Portarlington.
Talk about exciting – this round had it all.
Ocean Grove’s win momentarily lifted it from the bottom of the ladder, but two goals in the final 90 seconds gave the Power a two-point win to hand the Grubbers their first wooden spoon.
Newcomb was never really a wooden spoon side anyway. The Power have defeated top-three sides Queenscliff, Torquay and Geelong Amateur and lost to Drysdale (4th) by a point, and Anglesea (5th) by 10 points.
Of course there have been some heavy losses, but coach Tony Mirabella is optimistic about the future at Grinter Oval.
“We’re measuring up well against the top five teams, but we’re just not putting everything together,” he said.
“It is a sign, though, that things are on the up and we’re going in the right direction. There’s a lot of games where we haven’t been good enough to grab a game by the horns and just finish it off.
“It’s a bit of learning that a lot of our young guys need and that’s to, when the opportunities are there, to be able to grab a game and just be willing to take it.”
Mirabella will lead the Power again next year and said the club would aim to be active in the off-season in order to take the next step.
“To bring in a couple of polished leaders, guys at the top that we can rely on week in, week out to execute and, more than anything, to lead the other players,” he said.
“I think that’s an area that we’ve identified as a club and a playing group that is not a strength and a lot of our guys are trying to stand up and be those leaders, but might not be ready.
“Our aim will be to bring in three to four really experienced leaders that can take us to the next level.”
With onfield results slowly improving, Newcomb’s stability as a club means it can aim to be a destination club.
“We can’t name players, but we’ve already locked in three high-level recruits for next year, which previously for me has been really challenging,” Mirabella said.
“I can comfortably say in the last three years I’ve had over 100 recruitment meetings for probably not a lot of success, and that probably comes back to the reputation and it comes back to players really wanting to play finals footy.
“It is a hard sell when a player just has to Google ‘Newcomb Power’ and have a look at our results over the last five, ten, fifteen years and historically we just haven’t been good enough.
“We’re at a point now where I can sit back and say ‘look at our last month of footy and what we’ve produced in bits and pieces’. We aren’t far off.”
BELLARINE FOOTBALL LEAGUE FINALS
Qualifying finals at Portarlington Recreation Reserve
Saturday August 23
Torquay vs Queenscliff at 2pm
Reserves: Torquay vs Queenscliff at 11.45am
Elimination finals at Portarlington Recreation Reserve
Sunday August 24
Drysdale vs Anglesea at 2pm
Reserves: Barwon Heads vs Drysdale at 11.45am
