Roos Sweet Success

By Bruce Mellett  BDT Monday Sept 1987

Like a torrential monsoon downpour, South swamped North on Saturday to end a 13 year premiership drought with a convincing win in the grand final at the Jubilee Oval.

Pre match favourites North were never in the race as the Roos swept aside 13 years of misery in a devastating 100 minutes of football.

South set up the win with a nine goal first term into the wind to take a 41 point lead at the first change. North may have been hot favourites but they did not even get luke warm on Saturday. The only hot property was the South small brigade who ran North ragged all afternoon in the warm conditions to destroy the Bulldogs hopes of successive premierships.

Whilst not detracting from South’s glory, one cannot not help feel sorry for North who were defeated only once prior to Saturday.

Bluntly stated: North were complacent and South were confident. Peter Smith and Lyndon Bow played the games of their lives, with Smith emphasising the South commitment by consistently placing his body at risk to win the hard ball. The Roos also displayed a great team game and Rick Sweet can take a bow!

North left Darren Tangey, Kerryn Gilby and Greg Millstead out of their squad whilst South were unchanged from the Preliminary Final.  Lindon Bow booted two quick goals and handed out two other in the first ten minutes. North seemed shell shocked by South’s attack on the ball and the Northerners were constantly second to the ball.

South opened the second term posting two quick goals through skipper Stenhouse.

Randall Ragenovich was the lone Bulldog forward to offer any resistance but his goal near half time did little to reduce the 11 goal deficit.

The Bulldogs opened the second half with more desire and Coach Wayne Walker was doing everything to motivate his charges. Steve Minnis had finally slipped his marker and was having more influence but two goals to Phil Killeen had the Roos running full of confidence.

The goal of the match was booted by South defender Rod McDougall who ran  the length of the field and booted a magnificent goal that bent back against the wind.

BHFL grand final

South: 9-2  13-9 16-10 19-15 (129)

North: 2-3   3-4   5-10   8-12    (60)

Goal Scorers: South: P Johns 6, L Bow 3, R Stenhouse 2, P Killeen 2, P Smith, T Bennett, D Sutton, R Sweet, A Harman, R McDougall Norths: R Ragenovich 4, M White, S Minnis, G Nielsen, K Hoskins,

Best Players:  South: P Smith (BOG) , L Bow, T Bennett, R Stenhouse, P Killeen, I McKay, P Bongetti, P Johns

North: W Walker, R Crampton, R Ragenovich, S Minnis, B Price, B Bearman.

Teams:

South G. Semmens, R Stenhouse (C), T Bennett, P Johns (VC), B Pollard, P Smith, L Bow, P Killeen, J Prenzel, D Sutton, P Semmens, R Dannatt, T Gepp, K Hocking, I McKay, W McFarlane, F Sweet, P Bongetti, W Caldwell, A Harmon, R McDougall.

North: G Martyn, G Eddy, G DeFranceschi, R Crampton, G Nielsen, J Robins, P Johnson, D Ruddock, D Hunt, N O’Callaghan, T Tiziani, W Walker, M McKee, A Giblett, R Ragenovich, B Bearman, R Bennett, M White, K Hoskins, S Minnis