Foster premiers

Foster, the best performed side of 2010 proved on Saturday that they were the best side all season when they defeated Stony Creek in the grand final at Inverloch in windy conditions.

The ground surface was in tip top condition, with the IK club doing an excellent job in the presentation of the day.

Foster kicked with the aid of the breeze in the first term and they were soon into attack but kicking goals was proving a problem with the wind causing the Foster forwards all sorts of trouble.

Brett Eddy kicked the Tigers first goal of the game as the Tigers had most of the play on their forward line.

The Creek were able to go forward and Shields got the Creek on the board with an early goal, before Rooney replied for the Tigers.

Foster’s tackling was an early feature of their game with Rooney, Williams, Best, Ratcliffe, Stevenson and Cowell all going in extremely hard and reaping the rewards.

Hawking on his wing was doing well, while Stone and Shields for the Creek were causing a few problems for the Tigers. Hutchinson was running hard but was continually being put under pressure from the Foster taggers who were rotating on him.

McMillan was threatening on Zachariassen, and he snapped his first and Stony’s second for the term to bring the score back to eight points at the first change, with Foster leading 2-9 to Stony Creek 2-1.

The second term was fairly even with the ball rebounding from one end to the other. Stevenson took a screamer on the goal line for Foster to kick their third, while the Creek started to get some momentum going with goals to big Brenton Byrnes and two to Stone.

Bartholomew was marking everything that came his way and he was able to convert for the Tigers, while Rooney and Best continued their good work in getting the ball forward.

Foster’s skill use around the ground was getting better as the game went on, but they still had the yips in front of goal.

Eddy kicked his second for the Tigers and Huggins goaled late in the second term to see the scores all tied up at half time, Foster 5-11 to Stony Creek 6-5.

Foster came out attacking after half time and with Best now moved forward opened the second half with the first goal of the term.

Cowell snapped another soon afterwards and the Tigers were starting to get on top. When Bartholomew goaled on the run it was starting to look as if the Tigers were going to run away with it, but Van Der Pluym goaled to stop the advance.

Hawking took the mark of the day from a kick out where he took a screamer over his opponent. This seemed to lift his team-mates as they continued to work hard with Everington, Stevenson, King and Rooney standing up.

Byrnes was competing well in the ruck for the Creek against Bowman and Aabryn, while Dylan Zuidema and Andrews were getting plenty of the ball. Grylls was moved to defence for the Tigers in the third term to help cover the Stony small forwards who always looked dangerous.

McMillan was still looking dangerous for the Creek but he was not able to hurt the Tigers on the scoreboard.

Eddy and Rooney both goaled for the Tigers, and they looked as though they would have a handy break at the last change, before Stone kicked his third and soon afterwards Huggins kicked truly and then the Creek were still in it at the last change, only seventeen points down and coming home with the breeze, which was starting to drop away.

McMillan took a strong mark and goaled to start the last term and Foster were forced to make a change with the talented King being moved onto the key forward. Despite giving away inches in height and many kilos, King had enough footy smarts to restrict Stony’s key forward from then on. Along with Grylls, the two gave the Tigers a touch of stability when it was really needed.

Foster again wasted a couple of opportunities in attack before Ratcliffe snapped a goal to give the Tigers some breathing space.

Both teams were still going in hard and the standard of play was still high, with Foster’s running game starting to take its toll on the Creek.

Howe got on the end of some good play down field, to lay off to Eddy, for his fourth. A kick into the man on the mark by Eddy from 30 metres out got the heart pumping, but soon afterwards Howe was able to put the game out of reach with the Tiger’s thirteenth and last goal of the game.

Van der Pluym goaled from the boundary for the Creek, but soon afterwards the siren sounded and Foster had won their first premiership in seventeen years and the fairytale finish had accomplished by the Foster Tigers.

Some critical moves to help strengthen the Foster defence after half time had paid massive dividends for them, while Stony Creek had every chance to win back to back premierships, they didn’t seem to have the same hunger as last season.

Final scores, Foster 13-20-98 d. Stony Creek 11-8-74.

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