FINAL FLING

by Barry from Beach Road

The signs were not good for the Sandy reserves even before the first ball was bounced in anger at TEAC Oval for their first semi final elimination match against Box Hill Hawks.

The VFL gave the Hillmen permission to play Hawthorn pair Simon Taylor and Cameron Stokes in a reserves final under a ruling which operates when an affiliate's AFL team is in action on the same weekend (not withstanding that the Box Hill seniors were out of the finals). On top of that, Melbourne was unwilling to make its players available (to avoid potential costs that might be incurred in the event of injury) so Isaac Weetra, Trent Zomer as well as Jack Grimes and Tom McNamara (who was recovering from a hamstring injury) were ruled out.

Despite the difficulties these bureaucratic issues presented, a reasonably strong team took the field and. although it had its opportunities to win the match, it could never really head Box Hill which recently managed to score an upset win over flag favourite Williamstown.

Box Hill opened strongly and went to a 17 point lead at the first break and the margin stayed at around that level in an evenly fought second term. The Hawks, who were assisted by a solid display in the ruck from Taylor extended their lead to beyond five goals in the third quarter but Sandy kicked the final 3 goals of the term to have the margin back to 15 points at ¾ time.

At this stage, all the momentum was well and truly with the Zebras and there were high hopes that lead could be pegged back but the bigger, stronger Box Hill prevailed and drew away to win by 34 points and put an end to Sandringham's season.

Daniel Gribbin showed the benefit of some senior games this year and booted four goals. Rennie Gilchrist, Will Johnson and Scott Lockwood gave their all for the club which will be buoyed by the large numbers of new faces who came onto the scene and made an impact at both senior and reserves level this year. This augurs well for the future of the club as it takes up a new partnership with the St. Kilda Football Club later this year.

Sandringham 2.4.16 5.6.36 10.10.70 13.16.94

Box Hill Hawks 5.3.33 8.5.53 13.7.85 19.14.128

Goals

Sandringham Gribbin 4 Lockwood McConnell Summons 2 Gilchrist Gilder Gileno

Box Hill Hawks Bayliss 4 Smithwick 3 Cross Hill Hoegel O'Sullivan 2 Angelopoulos Nye Shore Taylor

Best

Sandringham Johnson Cleeve Gribbin Williams Dean McConnell

Box Hill Hawks Cross Warby Bull Hill Smithwick Bayliss