Firstly a crowd of 8,632 was disappointing, was a great atmosphere though, plenty of noise, really comfortable crowd for those who were there, but for the TV and the finances of the VFL perhaps Optus Oval will not be used again. The ground is magnificent, the grandstand has seating everywhere, there is good enough standing room, I can't understand why people don't like it.
The third term cost Werribee badly, Poyas and Motlops dominance for Sandy was amazing. Werribee skills also let them down.
Werribee, given how many poor players they had, to only lose by 9 points was a pretty good effort. Podsy wasn't right fitness wise, Rawlings was disgraceful for a bloke on the cash he is, Skipper was not imposing enough, generally the forward line was ordinary. Same thing has happened a few times, took them a long time to get the forward line right in Bendigo the other week as well. Blokes like Gleeson, Furfaro, Darcy and Closter missed out, probably not worthy of playing but still I wonder if with such a good VFL list at disposal they made the most of what they had?
Not convinced that Atkins went about a few things in the right way, the delay coming out after half time was poor, they were 5 minutes late and in hindsight his "underdog" label possibly backfired cos he's reminding his players constantly that they were beaten by Sandy - why not talk his boys up a bit?
Full credit to Sandringham, better skilled and more hungry. Poyas was great, Ward off half back provided so much drive, Motlop did his bit, Armstrong kicked a few goals, Williams was good, Warnock put his hanmd up down back, so did Biddlecombe who blanketed Rawlings.
Anyone confused with the timing of the quarters, the last going for less than 28 minutes? I thought it would have gone for closer to 30. Do they shorten the quarters in the Grand Final, I believe the half time break is shortened.
A good Grand Final, a worthy winner. Hopefully a few clubs are ready to challenge for the premiership in 2006.
