BUNDOORA, VIC. (NFNL HQ). — It took until the last minutes of the last game to decide the finals make-up in the Northern Football Netball League’s (NFNL) Division 3 as the regular season came to a thrilling end.
Three teams in Ivanhoe, Laurimar, which had the bye, and Mernda were safely in the top three spots on the table. Five teams were already out of the finals race, while the other three slugged it out for the final two places in the five.
For the second year running, a team went through the home and away season undefeated. Ivanhoe achieved this feat against Epping at Ivanhoe Park with a big 133-point win. Several players came back into the Hoers’ line-up on the weekend. The most significant of these was vice captain Marcel Moran, who has not played since Round 11.
“I’m really proud of our club, having both seniors and reserves finish in top spot and grateful to get through unscathed today,” said Ivanhoe coach Wayne Schultz. He praised the work of Daniel Horsfield, whose work around the ground and decision-making was exceptional. Schultz also gave a tick to Reuben Blackmore-Moore and Michael Doyle in defence.
It was Brad Hollow’s last game as coach at Epping, having led them to a finals win in 2024. Daniel Rakhlin kicked four goals for the Blues and that was enough for him to claim second spot on the goal-kicking table. He finished with 55 majors with Patrick Fitzgerald of Laurimar leading the way on 67.
Michael Jacobsen and Corey Middleton also did well for Epping, with the latter being a contender for the club’s B&F.
Kilmore ended the season on a high when taking on Mernda at JJ Clancy Reserve. The Blues trailed by 21 points at the main break but kicked ten goals to three after that to run out 20-point winners. Jaden Smith came back into the team after missing several weeks and had his best return for the season in slotting five goals. Chris Barton and Caleb Newport also contributed strongly to the victory.
While Demons fans would have been disappointed with the loss, it didn’t affect their ladder position, which was already locked in. Christian “Billy” Evans, Jesse Guelfo and Josh Caputo were among their best performers.
Reservoir, Watsonia and Heidelberg West were all battling for positions four and five, with one of them to miss out on finals altogether. Under the pressure of playing with so much at stake, all three teams performed below their best in terms of either winning or expected margin.
Heidelberg West hosted on Lalor at Heidelberg Park. They began the day needing to win by at least 200 points if they were to overtake Watsonia on percentage. This was ambitious, to say the least, as the Bloods’ biggest loss for the year was 159 points against Ivanhoe.
That possibility was off the table at half-time as the Bloods were playing determinedly and only trailed by 15 points. From that time onwards, the Hawks simply played to win and hoped for an upset in one of the other games.
They eventually ran away to an 80-point win. With other results going their way, it was enough to put them into the finals for the first time ever.
“It’s a brilliant moment for the Heidelberg West community,” said Heidelberg West coach Michael Missen. “It allows us to have ambition with our direction forward. But we are not satisfied with just making it.”
Missen loved the efforts of Fletcher Parkinson in the ruck as well as regular high performers in James Condello, Mitch Thompson and Nick Paton. He also praised the marking of Bryce Barnes who finished off his work with seven majors.
The season is now over for the Bloods, except that they will host the finals series. “The first half was very exciting with good ball movement and finally some reward on the scoreboard but, having said that, they did miss a few easy shots,” said Lalor president Wayne Hutson. “The second half was the same story all year, with the fitter sides running over the top of us. Glad the season is over for our players, and we can only hope that next year is brighter.”
Reservoir travelled to Eltham College to play Old Eltham Collegians. The Mustangs only needed a win to be playing finals for the first time since their premiership year of 2015.
Everything was going smoothly at quarter time when the Mustangs led by 19 points. However, the Turtles gradually took control of the game. They reduced the deficit to just five points at half-time and then a brilliant patch in the latter stages of quarter three sent them to the huddle 20 points in front.
Reservoir began the final term with two quick goals, but the Turtles steadied and hung on to prevail by 13 points. That victory gave fans hopes of better things to come. Remarkably, their six wins comprised two wins each against Lalor and Kinglake and two victories over a finals contender in the Mustangs.
Eden Simpson played a great game for the Turtles and kicked four goals, while Bailey Dillon, Connor Pilatti and Daniel Hallett all performed at a high level.
In a disappointing day for the Mustangs, Nick Grabowski stood out and kicked five majors. His brother Josh kicked two and used the ball extremely well through the midfield.
Reservoir fans will rue these two losses as well as the loss in the thriller to Heidelberg West a week earlier. After being a chance for a top three finish several weeks ago, the team dropped their last four games to narrowly miss the five.
Kinglake travelled to Binnak Park to tussle with Watsonia in the late game, which began about the time the other games were finishing. Given the results earlier in the day, the Saints needed to win to qualify for the finals. A loss would have seen them on the same wins as Reservoir and drop to sixth due to an inferior percentage.
The local fans were on good terms with themselves at half-time when their team led by 33 points. The optimistic ones were probably looking at a ten-goal plus triumph.
But the Lakers had other ideas. Led by Mason McAllister and Liam Lucas in the midfield and having Dylan Hoysted as a forward target, Kinglake won the third term by a goal and, with Hoysted slotting three majors in the final term, reduced the deficit to just 8-points midway through the quarter.
Bailey White stepped up to give the Saints some breathing room with a snap under pressure which went through the big sticks. The Lakers bravely fought on but were unable to kick another goal, going down by 12 points. In retrospect, the team probably went into safe mode too early and stopped taking the game on as they had in the first half.
After the way the day panned out, it was a combination of jubilation and relief in the Watsonia camp. After losing some quality players from last season, having a lot of inexperienced youngsters in the team and being written off by almost everybody outside the club, coach Anthony McGregor was super proud of the whole club.
“We have come a long way since relegation,” he said. “The boys are getting a bit of reward for their effort.” McGregor liked the work of Mason Grech in the ruck as well as defenders Toby Herbert and Luke Sansonetti who has finished the regular season with strong form.
It is the toughest road trip in football to travel up the highway to Kinglake to play there, but the Lakers had to do this in reverse for the majority of the season after their home ground became unavailable. Coach Justin Sherman, who has announced that he won’t be continuing in 2027 after taking the reins mid-season, was proud of the effort of his charges in the last two games.
“After all the adversity we faced, the way we finished the last couple of weeks showed real courage and resilience,” said Sherman. “It was a good and fitting way to finish off the year.” He praised the work of the key movers on the day in McAllister, Lucas and Hoysted.
The win by the Saints sets up an elimination final clash with Heidelberg West next weekend. Both teams were considered unlikely finalists by most pundits when the season began, but they were able to exceed expectations, and it makes for a fascinating first week of finals action.
