Hills flop in flag fight

By Stuart Teather
SOMETIMES things just don’t go to plan.
Endeavour Hills headed into its Victorian Rugby Union (VRU) Division Two grand final against Geelong brimming with confidence after a hard-fought semi-final victory against Maroondah, but it all went wrong on the big stage.
The Hills suffered a chronic second-half collapse to succumb 47-3 to the minor premier after trailing by just seven points at half-time.
The Hills have been notoriously slow starters all season, but they bucked the trend in the grand final, going toe to toe with Geelong in the first half to trail 7-0 at half-time.
Coach Jeff Lemalu said his players were outstanding in the first term.
“I think the boys were playing very well in the first half,” he said.
“Even the start of the second half we were warmed up… then all of a sudden the wheels started to fall off.”
Cracks started to appear in The Hills’ backline, which has been its weakness all year.
Poor passes and clumsy decisions cost the side badly and the young backs fell apart as the experienced Geelong team took control.
“Credit to Geelong, they never stopped playing, they always challenged our line, challenged our team and they’ve got some good experienced players in there,” Lemalu said. “We didn’t have that on Saturday.
“I was disappointed with the result, but I was more disappointed for them, they can play better than that.”
However reflecting on the season the coach had a more positive outlook.
“Endeavour Hills haven’t made a grand final for awhile now, it’s a big plus for the senior grade to make it this far,” he said.
“We had a little chat after the game, I said either way the scoreline is 47-3, but I’m still proudof them the way theyturned up week in week out to play.”
The coach highlighted captain Presley Naea and Loni Folau as his two standouts for the year and he declared Luke Buckton – who played his heart out in the grand final – as the season’s most improved.
It was a dark day for the juniors as well on Saturday, with the under-18s going down to Moorabbin 50-17 in their grand final.
But the club did have a reason to celebrate after winning the VRU Club Championship.
This is a competition that rates the club’s health across all divisions, with senior teams earning points for wins and all other teams (under 6, 8, 10 and over 35s) receiving points for fielding teams.
The Club Championship has been going since 1949, but Endeavour Hills is the first Second Division club to win the award.
In other news, Junior Salesulu won an award for themost points scored by a player during the regular Division Two season.