THE Leongatha Football Netball Club has had a big day on Gippsland League Grand Final Day at Morwell on Saturday winning the Seniors and Reserves in the football and the Under 13s and B Grade in the netball.
But, in the main football game, they swarmed their opposition Traralgon from the outset, bringing enormous heat to the contest, not allowing the Maroons the time and space to get their trademark ‘run and carry’ going and kicking six goals to nil in the first quarter to have a stranglehold on the result just 30 minutes in.
And setting the tone were the Heppell brothers, Aaron and Dyson, with Aaron opening the Parrots’ account in the first few minutes and Dyson a tackling machine as the teams tried to sort themselves out in the minutes that followed, an example that the rest of his teammates were only too happy to follow.
But kicking with the aid of a blustery wind, it was Leongatha which took to initiative with a goal to Jenson Garnham, the first of seven on the day, and then Patrick Ireland, with one of those kicks from the boundary that tells supporters and teammates that their side is on song.
Traralgon tried to respond through Mitchell Mustow, marking a kick-in up their end, however while Leongatha was making their chances count, Mustow missed and two more goals to Garnham, after a free kick, and one by a busy Nick Argento stretched the lead further and it already look ominous.
Luke Bowman, Tom Marriott, the Heppells, Kim Drew, Ben Harding, Benn Willis, Jay Walker and Tallin Brill were all up and about with their only stumbling block being Traralgon captain Tye Hourigan with his judgement and intercept marking across the Parrots scoring zone.
After Hourigan took five of more marks, the Parrots were ready with ‘Plan B’ and sent Luke Bowman to him to make him more accountable.
At the 28-minute mark, Jenson Garnham had his third on the board, making it six goals to nil and Leongatha were on their way.
They continued on in the second quarter, to lead by nine goals at half time and extended that to a near-record margin of 95 points at the end, the third-biggest winning margin in a Gippsland League grand final.
Leongatha named Dyson Heppell, Jack Hume, Jenson Garnham, Kim Drew, Aaron Heppell and Tim Sauvarin among the best but there wasn’t a passenger in the Parrots’ line-up.
Dyson Heppell won the ‘Stan Aitken Medal’ and also the umpires’ best-on-ground award, but it was a humble Heppell who said afterwards that he was just happy to be part of it.
“I’ve always had a lot of love for this club, where I played all my junior footy, and the opportunity to run out today with some blokes I played in the Under 12s and Under 14s was a real thrill.
“Also, with my brother Aaron who I’ve never played with before.
“But we said to each other during the week that we were really going to get after it today and I really enjoyed it.”
Among those who played in Saturday's premiership win were several who’ve tasted success with the Parrots on five occasions but new arrival at the club, Ben Harding, the Trood Award and Rodda Medal winner this year, revealed afterwards that he had never won a premiership of any kind before lifting the cup at Morwell on the day.
“Fantastic, yeah, great,” said an overjoyed Harding who shared the moment with former teammates at Old Melburnians.
In his acceptance speech after the game, Trent McMicking described Leongatha’s respect for Traralgon and how after the disappointment of last year, they put the word ‘Redemption’ up on the noticeboard in the rooms and set about trying get improvement out of every player and every contributor to success on matchday.
He also noted they’d added a couple of additional players as well, not mentioning Harding and Heppell by name, but clearly, they been huge additions to the output.
The return of a fully fit Tom Marriott, who played his part on the day, also boosted the Parrots’ prospects.
The celebrations were off and running on the ground and in the rooms after the game, and there was a hot time in the old town on Saturday night with four premierships to celebrate.
