Doves down and dusted

By Brad Kingsbury
DOVETON fell away at the business end of a super successful season, capitulating meekly to a steely strong and focussed Pakenham in Saturday’s Casey Cardinia League grand final at the Toomuc Reserve.
Everything fell into place perfectly for Pakenham’s triumphant coach Michael ‘Jock’ Holland with the Doves, who had gone through the home-and-away season without tasting defeat, suddenly becoming vulnerable in September.
There were doubts about the Doves’ fitness, pace, intensity and, most importantly, unity after their second semi-final thumping at the hands of the Lions.
Pakenham won the toss and kicked with a four-goal breeze.
Pakenham started with Glen Wouters and Dan O’Loughlin in the midfield and Jeremy Everett deep forward, while Doveton captain Justin Hill became a loose man in defence.
Within 10 minutes it was obvious that the Lions were on their game and running goals to Dom Paynter and Luke Walker had the alarm bells ringing in the Doveton coaches’ box.
The Doves could not get clean possession at the stoppages and had it not been for Hill, the floodgates would have been open very early for the Lions.
Jake Matthews slotted two goals in quick succession and when Wouters kicked an opportunistic major after a free kick to Sean Gramc, the body language of the once seemingly invincible Doves said it all.
There were hands on hips and bewildered looks across the field.
Doveton’s big guns in Russell Gabriel, Ryan Hendy and Michael Henry were swung into the action, but the momentum was set and the Lions took a 37-point lead over their goalless opponents into the first huddle.
A typically brilliant snapped goal to Hendy four minutes into the second term gave the Doves a glimmer of hope.
However, with spearhead Danny Casset clearly incapacitated by a groin injury and few other scoring options available, the Lions’ defence, led by Jared Goldsack and Tom O’Loughlin, ran the ball out of danger with far too much ease.
The Doves failed to make an impression on the scoreboard with the wind and trailed by 40 points at half-time, with the result a foregone conclusion excluding a major Doveton form reversal.
Doveton swung the changes in the third term with Peter Greenstreet and Daniel Charles going forward, but nothing worked and the Lions retained their composure to open the lead up to 54 points and then shut down the game in the final term.
Charles booted two goals in the third term with Casset off the ground, but the opportunities were few and far between as the Lions continued to dominate the midfield with Dean Blake, Paynter and Ryan Cassidy getting better as the game wore on.
After 22 minutes without a goal being scored in the final term, emotions spilled over and there were several spot fires on the outer side of the ground, resulting in Hendy and Aboujaber ending the game off the ground and on report, but it was really the last huff and puff of a side in its grand-final death throes.
Lion rover Jack O’Rourke put the icing on the cake with Pakenham’s 15th goal one minute before the final siren and this signalled the start of a week of celebrations at the Toomuc Reserve.
Holland said he had been confident of success from the start of the finals campaign.
“I always thought that if we played to our ability we could win it,” he said. “We changed our game plan and we started playing one-on-one footy and backed our ability to win the contested football. It’s been a five-year journey and it’s just very rewarding to get to this point and say we won it.”
Doveton coach Mark Mott, who played a back seat to assistant coach Clint Wilson throughout the year, congratulated the Lions and said that they were simply too good. “Well done to Pakenham. They never let us in or gave us any chance to run,” he said. “To our blokes it was a great season and great effort to go through undefeated, but a very disappointing way to end the year.”
From the first contest in the middle Dan O’Loughlin showed his absolute class and continued the show throughout the next four quarters to take out the VCFL Medal for best afield, while the gut-running of Dean Blake on a wing saw him deemed the best player by the 3RPP radio commentary team.
By far Doveton’s best player was captain Justin Hill who never stopped trying and was equally effective in defence or on the ball.
League best-and-fairest winner Russell Gabriel was strong in the air across the ground, while defenders Brad Downe and Daryl Thomas battled it out against the odds manfully. Jason McCloy effectively tagged dangerous Lion Luke Walker, while Ryan Hendy showed his class around the ground.
The Doveton reserves won an amazing third consecutive premiership with a 24-point victory over second semi-final conqueror Beaconsfield. Tough Dove midfielder Michael Davies was named best afield.
And continuing the consecutive flag trend, Narre Warren proved far too accomplished for the Devon Meadows youngsters in the under-18 curtain raiser, making it back-to-back pennants. Creative Magpie defender Michael McKenzie was the VCFL medallist.
Beaconsfield bounced back from their shock semi-final loss to blitz an overwhelmed Pakenham side and score a run-away 27-goal win in the A-grade netball grand final.
However the Lions took out the B and C grade pennants with strong wins over Berwick, Narre Warren won the 17-and-under title, its first netball premiership ever.
Other flags went to Beaconsfield in the 15-and-under and Cranbourne in the 13-and-under.
Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League officials were happy with the crowd that was up on last year and chairman Tony Vagg said the day had run like clockwork with no incidents or problems.