Players and supporters were left stunned when the final siren sounded.
Leading by 19 points at the long break Violet Town — after kicking six goals to one in the second quarter — appeared to have the ascendency.
But the Lakers wouldn’t go away inching back to within six points at the final break.
In a see-sawing final quarter, the Towners appeared to have sealed the result when Jack Exell marked and duly run in to an open goal that would have the margin 11 points inside the final five minutes, but the umpire decided to deem it not a mark, awarded it to Nagambie and then preceded to give the longest 50 metre penalty in history, next thing it’s a goal to the Lakers and they are in front.
Jack Exell was clearly best on ground with eight majors, Matt McCarty, Ollie Ford and Nick Brazil were again good all day.
Charles Hunter was tough and brilliant on his wing and Tim Ross just never gave up outpointing his opponent.
It’s a hard pill to swallow but the sun did come up the next day.
We as a club will lick our wounds. Overall, it’s been a very good season and the first time for a long time both senior football teams have made the finals.
The A-grade netball team, following its win on Saturday, can carry on the club’s hopes further in the finals.
Thank yous will be done on presentation night, some exciting announcements soon, now we turn our attention to 2023 and become even better.
Violet Town: 15.7.97 def by Nagambie: 16.11.107
Best: J.Exell, M.McCarty, O.Ford, N.Brazil, T.Ross, C.Hunter
Goals: J.Exell 8, J.Mellington 4, M.McCarty 1, J.Styles 1, C.Hunter 1
RESERVES
After a season that started so promising, sitting in the top four for a majority of the year, the season ended in heartbreak at the hands of Merrigum in the Elimination Final.
Merrigum opened proceedings with the first goal but the Towners were able to get on a roll and kick the next three of the first term to take a two-goal buffer into the first break, and opened the scoring in the second term.
However, Merrigum took the ascendancy after that, kicking the next three goals to hit the lead, before a late goal to Jarrod Fox gave Violet Town back the lead at half-time.
However, in the third term Merrigum took control of the game to open up a 23-point margin heading into the last.
In the last quarter the Violet Town Boys dug deep and controlled the ball inside their half of the ground for 85 per cent of the quarter, but early inaccuracy made it tough.
Goals to Ellis and J Davies gave us a sniff of victory with five minutes to go, but it was a case of too little too late as Merrigum held on.
Violet Town: 7.6.48 def by Nagambie: 8.7.55
Best: Jesse Corbett, Justin Davies, Jarrod Fox, Kodi Dunn, Lachlan Ellis, Jamie Clohesy
Goals: J.Fox 2, J Davies 2, L Ellis 1, J Domoter 1, M Mulvenna 1
