Back-to-back bliss for perfect Port Douglas
AFL CAIRNS | GRAND FINAL
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IT was the perfect quarter to end the perfect season.
The Crocs set up their historic back-to-back premiership win with a brutal 8.7 to 0.0 opening term against Manunda yesterday in a symbolic statement.
Symbolic because the fat zero next to the Hawks score line at quarter time mirrored the Crocs losses column this year as they completed an undefeated campaign with their 20th straight victory.
The 75-point win capped off a fairytale afternoon for the club, with the reserves also victorious by one point in an epic grand final that took two extra time periods to decide.
Kicking with the aid of a howling wind, the Crocs set about crushing the spirit of Manunda from the outset, and they did - momentarily - with a ferocious attack on the footy.
Todd Shapter was a raging bull. He was running through tackles like the big kid in a little league game and continually pumped the Crocs forward. His brilliant running goal from the scoreboard pocket, Port’s third for the term, was just reward for a brilliant opening.
Pete Bury was his busy self around the contest. He got creamed sitting under a high ball at the mid-point of the term, only to bounce up and kick his team’s fourth to open up a 28-point lead. It was typical Crocs footy.
Jordan Chapman was a man possessed down back. He, along with assistant coach Wes Glass, were standing tall on the last line and providing plenty of rebound the other way.
Skipper Kye Chapple was showing no signs of the groin injury that’s been troubling him, leading and marking strongly to finish with three first-term goals.
It all added up to a commanding 55 point lead at quarter time. And when you’re that far behind and haven’t scored yet, regardless of the wind, there’s usually no coming back.
But boy did Manunda give it a good shake over the next hour.
Inspired by mercurial forward Ezekial Frank, the Hawks lifted their intensity at the contest and booted the opening two goals of the term inside two minutes. It was the start of an eight-goal run that breathed life back into the contest.
Frank’s second goal for the quarter was simply brilliant; soccering the ball through with the outside of his right foot that left his opponent for the day, Jonathan Hobbs, scratching his head.
By the main break they had reduced the margin to 24-points and, importantly, went in full of momentum after Michael Miller’s long goal after the siren.
Port Douglas midfielder Matthew Medcraft snapped the opening goal of the second half after Frank missed one for the Hawks, and you wondered if it was the start of another avalanche of goals to the scoring end.
It wasn’t.
Manunda’s first major into the breeze came at the five-minute mark through the lively Kerry Williams; his team raising the intensity and turning the match into a torrid scrap. Chapple steadied the ship briefly for the Crocs when he goaled on eight minutes, but halfway through the premiership quarter this unlikely grand final was alive.
Fred Saunders reduced the margin to 26 points when he kicked his first for the day, and when Frank snapped brilliantly a minute later, his third, Cazalys Stadium was suddenly jumping; the scoreline reading 12.15 to 11.1.
But the Crocs, through Adam Gross, had other ideas.
The silky forward kicked two of his four goals in a blistering finish to the third term that wrestled the ascendency back in favour of the Crocs, and went a long way in earning him the Howard Kennedy Medal for best-on-ground. Although it could have gone to a handful of Port players, including Chapple, Shapter and Chapman who were all instrumental in the latter part of the third term as the Crocs took a 47-point lead into the final change.
Any chance of a Hawks miracle was snuffed out early in the last term; Hobbs winning two crucial contests against the dangerous Frank as the Crocs slowed the tempo and chewed up valuable minutes into the wind.
When Chapple found Medcraft to boot the opening goal of the term, a sense of relief washed over the Crocs camp.
They’d done it.
Chapple booted the next two goals, his seventh after a strong clunk, and unselfishly let a Glass kick sail through at the 20 minute mark to send the Port Douglas faithful into wild applause.
It was a fitting end to a flawless season.
AFL CAIRNS - GRAND FINAL
PORT DOUGLAS 8.7 10.12 16.18 21.19 (145)
MANUNDA 0.0 8.0 11.1 11.4 (70)
PORT DOUGLAS
GOALS: K. Chapple 7, A. Gross 4, J. Mawson 3, M. Medcraft 2, K. Bradshaw, T. Shapter, D. Wearmouth, W. Glass, P. Bury
BEST: J. Chapman, K. Chapple, T. Shapter, A. Gross, J. Wilson, C. Laurie, L. Staple
MANUNDA HAWKS
GOALS: E. Frank 3, R. Flint, F. Pittorino, S. Sagiba, C. Flint, M. Miskin, J. Karwan, M. Millar, K. Williams
BEST: E. Frank, K. Williams, W. Aisi, F. Saunders, A. Davies, E. Ware
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