Led by eight goals from Patrick Farrant, the Fitzroy Stars held on to advance to the Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3 Grand Final following a six-point win over Old Paradians at Lalor Reserve.
The Stars led throughout the afternoon and looked to be heading to a huge win after leading by as much as 49 points early in the final term. But the Raiders booted the final seven goals of the game to go down by a solitary goal in the 15.9 (99) to 14.9 (93) result.
The big names came to play and gave the crowd plenty of entertainment. Patrick Farrant’s eight majors included four goals into the wind during the second term, and while Old Paradians seemingly had no way to stop him, the Stars had a similar problem with Sam Gilmore, who dominated in the ruck, and went forward to kick two goals, nearly propelling his team to victory.
There was both excitement and relief in the victors rooms are winning their first ever Division 3 final. The Stars last played in a finals series in Division 2 in 2017 and last made the Grand Final in 2014 when they went down to North Heidelberg.
“We’re creating our own story, we get to write it,” Fitzroy Stars coach Lionel Proctor said.
Proctor acknowledged Farrant as their best, while also giving praise to Neville Jetta and Jordan Proctor for their roles across half back.
The usual ball-winners in Jai Burns and Kain Proctor featured in the midfield, along with James Trajkovski. Rivva Karpany returned to the line-up and was clean with his use of the ball out of defence, meanwhile helping out Farrant up forward was a trio of players who each slotted two majors in Alex Williamson, Raman Winmar and Ryan Lovegrove-Hudson.
The Stars kicked with a three-goal breeze in the first term, but the pressure applied by the Raiders kept them goalless until midway through the quarter. They seemed to have done well into the wind with a scoreline of 2-15 at the 25-minute mark, before the Stars slammed on three late goals to take a 31-point lead into the first break.
The last goal came courtesy of a 50-metre penalty against Old Paradians inside their forward fifty. The resultant kick went wide to the Stars forward pocket where Lovegrove-Hudson marked, before he slotted the difficult shot and the Stars hit quarter time with great momentum.
It was virtually goal for goal in the second term. While Farrant was putting on a clinic at one end, the Raiders were struggling to take full toll of the breeze.
A late goal to Sam Gilmore reduced the quarter time deficit slightly for Ben Turner’s men as they won the second term by just two points.
Kicking with the wind after the main break the Stars were looking to put the game away, but, unlike the first quarter, Old Paradians were able to hit the scoreboard.
They kicked two of the first three majors to reduce the margin to 27 points, however, the Stars slotted three of the final four goals for the term to lead by 39 points at the last change.
While the margin at the final break was significant, the Raiders fans would’ve given their team a slim chance with the last use of the breeze. The message from coach Ben Turner was to be brave, take the ball through the corridor and use overlap run.
And although the team followed his instructions early in the last term, they only registered behinds initially. In that time the Stars booted two majors, which included Farrant’s eighth, and it blew the lead out to a game-high 49 points. A big win for the minor premiers looked likely.
Old Paradians had other ideas though, and a stunning change came over the game. A string of handballs led to an Anthony Cafari goal from close range and with Sam Gilmore dominating in the ruck and the likes of Marcus Nolan, Joel Tolli and Kyle O’Sullivan driving the ball forward, suddenly the Raiders had five goals for the term with plenty of time left on the clock.
With about ten minutes to go and the margin at three goals the Stars managed to slow things down. They wound down the clock with chip kicks in defence and put numbers around the ball at stoppages in an attempt to prevent Sam Gilmore getting effective ruck knock-outs.
Still, Old Paradians kept coming, as Tolli kicked a goal on the run to reduce the margin to 12 points with four minutes remaining.
There were then multiple stoppages in the Raiders forward line before Blair Healy took a mark close in and goaled to make it a one-kick contest. Sadly for their fans, the siren blew almost immediately afterwards and the Stars survived in what was an outstanding final.
“We were brave, and we’ve earned the right to a second chance and now we have to use it to our advantage,” Old Paradians coach Ben Turner said.
Turner gave Sam Gilmore as his best, while giving a tick to William Gilmore and Heath Phillips in defence. Captain Marcus Nolan also won the coach’s respect, along with Joel Tolli.
Teenager Rufus Jones showed some dash from the midfield and hit the scoreboard with two goals.
