Drawn final a classic

During the Lower South West Football Leagues hiatus, the Manjimup-Bridgetown Times is looking back at classic league games. This week we look at the drawn Lower South West Football League grand final of 2006, which saw Southerners and Tigers draw 56 points apiece at Bridgetown, before Southerners turned it on in the replay to easily defeat Tigers by 63 points. Going into the final quarter, Southerners were leading by 13 points, but Tigers’ Angelo Femia felt that the momentum was in his side’s favour at that point in the match. “That’s when the momentum changed a little and we started getting on top and building right up until the game became a draw,” he said. Tigers captain Tristan Drake saw only three quarters of the match, as he was taken to Bridgetown Hospital to receive stitches after being elbowed in the nose and said when he initially heard about the draw he was excited about the replay. “We’d been a few goals down when it happened late in the third quarter, I went off to hospital in the ambulance and then obviously we kicked a few goals and we were coming home strong,” he said. “I was quite happy, I thought it was a sign, I thought we were going to come back next week and knock off Southerners, but that obviously didn’t happen,” The key moment of the drawn final was Tigers hitting the goal post in the dying minutes of the game to tie the game, when a goal would possibly have sealed the win. Southerners coach Paul Omodei Jun. said he thought the match was over when Tigers were lining up for goal. “I was looking for a place to dig a hole and crawl into pretty much because I thought it was over right then, we knew there wasn’t much time left on the clock,” he said. “I actually didn’t see him kick the ball I don’t think, I turned away, obviously on the bench our guys were pretty happy that he missed.” The replay was marred by the fact both sides lost players to work commitments and injury, which led to a debate in the Manjimup-Bridgetown Times as to whether the replay was the right model for any future draws that occurred. Troy Della Franca played for Southerners in both finals and said the atmosphere in the replay was lacking compared to other finals he had played in, a sentiment Drake and Femia agreed with. “The atmosphere was definitely lacklustre, it’s amazing how many people the colts and reserves pull to a ground and then they stay and watch the league final,” Drake said. “The atmosphere on the day of the actual grand final was phenomenal and then come to that replay, it was sort of a let down I guess.” “The drawn game was massive, there was a massive crowd ... it was a great game to be involved in, I think both sides would probably agree,” Femia said “The replay was basically both teams and a lot less crowd, and the moment was probably lost I suppose.” Della Franca said Southerners were lucky to have a second chance at winning the final after the Tigers hit the post in the final quarter. “We were a miles better team and we had a very average day and Tigers had a pretty good day,” Della Franca said. “In all honesty, we went back next week and they probably played their standard game, we played our standard game and we won by 10 goals.” His coach, Omodei did not agree with Della Franca’s sentiment. “We were very lucky to get away with the draw in the first one, Tigers were the better team.” Omodei paid tribute to the Tigers team of that era. “Typical Tigers, they never gave up ... you could be five goals in front and it wasn’t enough for them,”