How could you possibly contain the depth of talent that Glenorden
rolled out in Sunday’s Western Region Football League division 2 grand
final?
Parkside was desperate to avoid the bridesmaid’s tag for a fourth time in five years, but even after giving it their all for 120 minutes and leaving nothing in reserve, it was still not enough.
PICTURE GALLERY: Glenorden premiers!
Glenorden premiers – the captain
Glenorden premiers – the coach
Glenorden premiers – the unsung hero
Glenorden would go laughing all the way home to Kookaburra Avenue with the 2013 premiership cup in tow.
The Hawks are a team with a lot of parts welded together by coach Nick Diker and his team of assistants.
The big names are complemented by dependable team-oriented
players, the inexperienced youngsters are shown the way by the veterans
and the veterans get their energy off the fresh-faced players in the
group.
While the Hawks knew a long way out from the final siren that they
would salute on the premiership podium, they were made to work hard for
their rewards by a brave Parkside, who were down a rotation early after
a career-threatening Achilles injury to player-coach Nathan Juegan.
The Magpies controlled the early part of the opening term as the
result of some fine work at the centre clearances from ruckman Alex
Lochart. He linked well with Juegan and Nick Grant but they couldn’t
make their dominance tell on the scoreboard.
Nick Bone booted the opening goal of the match for the Magpies,
but his side would butcher many other attempts, with three
out-on-the-fulls for the quarter.
The nervous Hawks took 10 minutes to settle, but when they clicked it would have a devastating effect on the Magpies’ day.
Five unanswered goals saw the Hawks lead by 24 points at quarter time.
Parkside dominated the clearances after the break but a combination of sloppy entries inside 50 and a sturdy Hawks defence, led by the impenetrable Rhys Bucktin, saw them fail to make any significant erosion of the Hawks lead.
The Magpies pegged a goal back through Ben Ashman after an
advantage free kick was paid for a hold on full-forward Mo Khartabil.
The Hawks response was immediate through John Zangari, one of the best
on the day with four goals.
One became two and two became three when Damien Yze slotted two goals in two minutes to stretch the Hawks lead to 37 points.
At that point Parkside could have lost focus, but it was the Hawks
who started to lose their cool and commit a number of undisciplined
acts, including a toe-poke from Julian Storey into the back of a Magpies
player who was prone on the ground.
The resulting free kick ended in a Khartabil goal a short time later.
Khartabil then trimmed the deficit to 25 points on the back of
another careless act, this time a Hawks player running through the
mark, gifting a 50-metre penalty and a goal from point-blank range.
Emotions threatened to spill over at the end of the second term, with
the two huddles convening on centre wing for a push and shove before
they broke up for half-time.
Parkside again came out strongly at the start of the third quarter, but their wastefulness did not abate.
In the opening 20 minutes of the term, the Magpies had 16 inside
50s to six, but all they had to show for it was more easy misses, more
out-on-the-fulls and more frustration.
The Magpies started to get on top through attack inspired by Lochart, Bone, Grant, Justin Snow, Khartabil and Paul Clemente.
But their momentum was detonated by a skyscraping mark of the day
from young Hawk Josh MacDonald, who climbed over the shoulders of Fab
Mastropasqua.
Not only was it a goal-saving mark, it would shift the pendulum
the Hawks’ way – they went on to boot the final two goals of the quarter
through Zangari to take a 35-point lead into three-quarter time.
The last term was pop-the-Champagne-cork time for Glenorden, a chance to let it sink in that they would emerge as premiers in 2013.
FINAL SCORE
THE 2013 PREMIERSHIP TEAM
