AFTER a strong season, Leitchville Gunbower Football Club have fallen short at the last hurdle – losing by 71 points in the Heathcote District Football League grand final.
White Hills proved too strong for the Bombers, as the Demons claimed their first senior HDFNL premiership since 1988 to break a 36-year drought.
Bombers coach Shannon Keam told the Gannawarra Times he and his side were disappointed in how the season had wrapped up.
“It was a disappointing day for us,” he said.
“That performance just wasn’t us, and while we had a pretty good year at the end of the day we didn’t perform when it mattered.
“I have to give the full credit to our opponents, they executed really well offensively and defensively and wore us down.
“They really owned us around the ball around the contested stuff. From there they really opened us up with their skills and stopped us from getting our game going.
“White Hills were far too superior for us this time.”
A five-goal-to-zip second quarter set up the Demons to run away with the match, with White Hills vice-captain Liam Bartels claiming a bag of eight goals for the game.
“Bartels was getting on the end of some really good work from up the field,” Keam said.
“He played pretty well, but if it wasn’t him someone else would’ve got on the end of those entries.
“We were pretty shocking defensively in that second quarter, and that’s really where they hurt us.”
Keam said that while it was “pretty hard to find some winners on the day”, a handful of players stood out in his Bombers team.
“I thought both of Will and Jim Brereton both worked pretty hard for us all day,” he said.
“Young Max Hagan was good for us, as was Jye Keath, Brady Hore, Bradley Green and Chris Horman.
“But in a performance like that it’s pretty hard to find the best players.”
But Keam said he hoped the big loss would spur his side to go one better next year.
“We’ll have 90 per cent of this list returning next year, all the local lads will stick around,” he said.
“The foundations for us to build on are still there, so hopefully we can go again next year.”
But it wasn’t all bad news, as the 13 & Under netballers triumphed over Lockington Bamawm.
