Shinboners kick to glory

By Kath Gannaway
AFTER knocking on the door last year, Thornton-Eildon took the extra step on Saturday by winning the 2007 Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League (YVMDFL) Division Two premiership at Healesville.
Dean Laidley recently made the comment that the Geelong v Kangaroos clash was “men against boys”, and a big crowd at Don Rd saw the YVMDFL’s version.
In a ruthless, disciplined exhibition of precision kicking and marking, the Shinboners annihilated a disappointing Belgrave by 98 points, 22.11.143 to 6.9.45.
Such was the team’s dominance, Belgrave kicked its third goal 10 minutes into the second quarter, and didn’t kick another until the same stage of the last.
No doubt the Magpies would have gone into the match with a degree of confidence after only losing to Thornton by 11 and six points in their two most recent encounters, but it was a different opposition that confronted them on Saturday.
And Belgrave knew it very early on, with a lack of direction on and off the field not helping the cause.
Thornton’s Lucas Smith capped off a stellar finals series with the best on ground medal, and his side now has 30 days to exercise its option of being promoted into Division One for 2008.
In the reserves grand final, Alexandra claimed the title by six points over minor premier Belgrave in a game that came down to the last five minutes.
Little separated the sides all day, and fittingly it was veteran George Steiner who got the Rebels home with the last goal of the day, with team-mate Leonard Jenkins named best on grund.
In the under 18s, Yarra Junction exorcised some of its demons from last year with a decisive victory over Emerald.
The Eagles were clearly the best side all year, but, as they found in 2006, that means nothing come grand final day.
They beat Emerald in the second semi-final a fortnight ago and weren’t about to let this opportunity slip by, jumping out of the blocks and never really being threatened by the Bombers.
Daniel Edwards was awarded best afield honours.
In netball, Alexandra had high hopes for success, with both teams winning the minor premierships and competing in A and B Grade grand finals.
Unfortunately, both Yarra Junction in B Grade and Emerald in A Grade had different ideas, and managed to defeat their respective Rebels opponents 28-23 in B Grade and 32-21 in A Grade.
Yarra Junction came close last year, and, like its under 18 footballers, had clearly learnt from the experience.
Emerald showed steady improvement from 2006, was the only team to beat Alexandra during the season and kept its head to be duly rewarded on Saturday.
Elise Borg from Emerald took out the best on court award in A Grade, while Brooke Davis (Alexandra) achieved the rare honour of taking out the equivalent in B Grade in a losing side.