IN RACING parlance, the track at Meeniyan on Saturday, for the Mid-Gippsland Elimination Final between third-placed Foster and sixth-placed Yinnar would have been rated a ‘Slow 6’, moist but not badly affected.
Which, given that the flooded Tarwin River is nearby, there had been upwards of 100ml during the week, and further rain overnight, it was a credit to curators Darryl Sinclair, Wayne Cook and the grounds crew at Meeniyan.
Certainly, it was heavy enough to turn it into a ‘backman’s game’ and by the last quarter many of the players were out on their feet after a hard-slogging affair.
And typical of many of Yinnar’s clashes this year, there were only single-digit points in the margin for much of the second half, including when Beau Hutton put the Pies in front by a solitary point late in the last quarter and ultimately, when Sebastian Famularo iced the game with a last gasp goal.
Untypically, though, after six one-kick results this season, losing five of them, and also going down to Foster by two goals earlier in the year, it was Yinnar which got on the right side of the ledger this time, for a seven-point victory.
It would have made a better story if they’d won by a point!
And they have their almost impassable ‘back six’ to thank for the win, led in stirring style by their 200-game veteran Brendan Chapman who celebrated his milestone game in the best possible fashion, with a best-on-ground performance in a winning final.
The last-line defender was chaired from the ground afterwards, but they could just as easily have carried off his mate, Jack Dean, who played superbly on the dangerous Tom Bartholomew, or Jamie Winters and Luke Linton or the rest of the Magpies' defence.
It was a famous effort by them.
They kept Foster to a losing score of 6.7, and while the pressure further up the field, on the Foster ball carriers, was also good throughout, the Yinnar backmen were the heroes of the day, courageously playing in front of their opponents to take crucial intercept marks, or combining with cool precision to sweep the ball away, time and time again, from the last line.
Foster had more than enough forward entries, with the likes of Josh Toner, Will Mattingley, Brendan Neville and the two wingers Olly Lemchens and Olly Callcott driving it in off the flanks, or big Mitch Allott thumping it forward out of the ruck, but there were dozens of occasions when it came to nothing.
Prior to those two late strikes by Yinnar, Foster looked to be the team that was finishing best, getting their game going with goals to Bartholomew and Toner in the third quarter and hitting the front with two early goals in the last quarter; by Trent Hamilton from a long way out on the angle and Billy Flavelle, after a terrific build up.
The ‘one handball, one kick’ mantra, preached by Foster coach Sam Davies in the huddle at the last change was doing the trick and it took a free kick on the Yinnar forward line, to Hutton, for a goal to change the pattern of the final quarter.
The score put Yinnar up by one point, the wind had dropped and the Pies were up and about to defend their slender lead, or even add to it.
Luke Linton took a terrific defensive mark as Foster pressed again and the teams were on even terms, up and back, before an errant kick out of defence by Craig Wray was marked by Yinnar's Seb Famularo, who slotted it through from 30 metres out for the sealer.
The ball went back to the centre, with Yinnar leading by seven points, and with everyone expecting Foster to answer but the siren sounded at the 23:18 minute mark (according to the scoreboard), indicating a super-short quarter but the result was in the book.
Yinnar had turned its luckless season on its head and will now go forward to another Elimination Final at Newborough next Sunday.
With a thrilling 8-point loss to premiership favourites Tarwin earlier in the season, many have penciled Yinnar in as ‘a smoky’ for 2022 honours, if they can only make it through the next few weeks.
The two teams, Foster and Yinnar, had turned on a low-scoring thriller for the big crowd at Meeniyan on Saturday with interest in Mid-Gippsland’s new-look competition alive and well after COVID.
Final scores Yinnar 7.8.50 def Foster 6,7.43.