Nagambie storms home to clinch Kyabram District League under-18 premiership over Violet Town

The scene was set: same venue, same game, same opponent.

But after tasting grand final defeat against the Towners by eight points in 2023, retribution was front of mind for the Lakers as they shot to a 10.14 (74) to 4.6 (30) triumph at Mooroopna Recreation Reserve.

“We started pre-season in December for this very moment, the boys were up for it and it was a great team effort all around,” Nagambie coach Bo Harrison said.

“I thought it was a pretty good contest to be honest, we kicked against the breeze to start with and went to work really hard — we knew we had to do that.

“We managed to keep it even at quarter-time, had the breeze in the second and it still could’ve gone either way.

“But I thought in the third quarter against the breeze, outscoring them and putting the foot down, it was a great team effort.”

Nagambie roared from the first bounce, setting up real estate inside Violet Town’s back 50 as a swirling, low kick found Ethan Davis, who turned and ran the extra few metres to thrash it through for his 69th goal of the season.

Rest assured, it wouldn’t be his last.

Yet, it only triggered Violet Town’s reply, with Max Smyth finding himself with no men around him, caressing it through for the south-eastern outfit’s first.

Not long after, Sam Leigh took a sterling contested mark and roosted it from 50m, followed shortly by a Brodie Ballantyne snap across the body.

The noise was warring, Nagambie in the Ted Davis Stand versus Violet Town in the past players pavilion, and at 14-14 with quarter time arriving, the game was up for grabs.

However, a minute into the second stanza, Archy Harrrison’s bomb touched the clouds on the way up and was smartly taken by Davis, who snapped smartly off his red-hot right boot to kick-start the Lakers’ charge.

Then, the moment of the match arrived.

A spearing kick into Davis was juggled once, twice and then finally held on the third attempt for an elite mark, and he finished the set shot with aplomb for his third of the match.

Straight away, though, Dylan Erskine capitalised on a free kick and knocked one through to make it 30-20.

The game was opening up, but for the final five minutes of the half, Violet Town was under siege.

In the third quarter, the pressure radar redlining as Nagambie was on Violet Town like a rash and Zane Kilroy was the beneficiary as he ran through unchallenged and made no mistake.

It was a general assault on the Towners’ backline, and Kilroy’s second from a similar position and fashion essentially hammered the final nail in the coffin with 30 points the difference between the sides.

While he was left goalless in the third quarter, Davis was rewarded for his perseverance as he polished off his fourth early in the final term.

Leigh dragged one back for Violet Town, before Kilroy bundled yet another goal home as the drizzle started to come from the heavens.

Thomas Mason postage stamped the victory with five minutes to go, unleashing a torpedo from 50m that almost kissed the post on its way through.

A fully-fledged brawl in the final minutes that carried on after the siren took a layer of shine off the match, but regardless of the ill-discipline from both sides, Harrison praised his full list for getting the job done on grand final day.

“There were 24 of us who got the job done. Unfortunately two missed out, but it takes the whole squad to get through to this point,” he said.

“I can’t really single anyone out. Everyone put their heads down and bums up, worked hard, had a great year undefeated and then managed to do it in the granny.

“I reckon there’s a good five, six kids who will push up, hopefully pushing those older boys out of the seniors so they can play twos.”