BRETT MURRELL
LCFNL – Seniors
WELL, here we are Cat Fans, the last round of the 2025 footy season and a must-win game for our Senior side and it was the Doggies of East Gambier who were between us and finals, for the first time in the Limestone Coast Football Netball League.
After a couple of close losses against Millicent and then Penola, spoiling our 150 years of footy celebrations, our Cats had slipped from the top spot to forth and a loss to the Dogs and if Penola won over West, we would drop out of the four.
Max Rooke and his team though have worked hard over the bye and were cherry ripe to come out flying at McDonald Park.
Our Reserve Cats had set the scene with a nine-goal win; Sam Craig booting five goals showed he is ready to step back into the Seniors if required, as did Cory Wombwell who racked up a tonne of possession and left quite a few Doggies curled up on the ground.
The Jones boys, Joshua and Casey, also got their fair share of the ball, pushing hard both back and forward.
Rick Killey kicked three goals, but his defensive work stopped the Dogs dead in their tracks and Sam Broomby used his big body and footy smarts in a dominant ruck performance.
The Casterton Sandford players all lined up in a guard of honour for former Sandford senior coach, Al Scott, who was chaired from the ground by his East team-mates after calling time on his career at the spritely age of 50.
Big Al was probably unlucky not to get a premiership while at Sandford as he had a very good list, but injuries can be cruel.
Very well done on a solid career to this affable giant and enjoy the chance to hit the hills and puddles on your bike next Winter.
The Cats’ Seniors bolted out of the middle from the first bounce with Michael Krieger accepting Alastair McCrae’s tap and handballing to Cal Currie who sent the ball long forward.
East was able to intercept and clear but only as far as Tom Foster, who kept the ball in the Cats’ third of the ground where it stayed for a few minutes until Sam Tooley got the ball to Currie, who marked and then put through the Cats’ first goal.
Casterton Sandford went forward from the next bounce but East skipper, Matt Ferguson and veteran Mark Rumbelow were able to clear for the Dogs and the ball was soon within metres of the East goals.
Matt Mutch was able to gather and spot Jett Attard on the flank, Attard then burst away and kicked to Ed Pritchard on the wing, who then passed to Cal Currie, sighting Hamish McCrae all alone in the square.
Hamish accepted the Currie ball and turned and kicked the Cats’ second, a third goal coming only a minute later from the boot of the mercurial Colby Munro, a left-foot snap from 45 metres out.
East tightened up their defence; Karl Ransom and the three Lock brothers pushed hard forward for the Dogs but the Cats were not giving up any easy ground as Diarmid Cleary and Gabe Parsons cut off the attack with the help of Mutch and Attard and the ball was soon back in the Cats’ attacking half.
Dylan Ayton scooped the loose ball up and handballed to the running Krieger who kicked the Cats’ fourth goal; a couple of minutes later Ayton would leave the ground as Alastair McCrae was kicking the Cats’ fifth, with his teeth and blood coming out of his top lip after several Easties, led by Nicholas Lock, accosted our former coach and president.
The next Casterton Sandford goal came a few minutes later when Jarrad Smith cleared out of the backline through Tooley who passed to Nick Schembri; Schembri then went on a bit of a run through the middle and kicked a 50-metre major.
The Cats finished the quarter off with a seventh goal as Adam McKinnon intercepted and passed to Attard who then saw Munro on the lead, Munro marking and kicking truly and sending the Cats in at quarter time with a 46-point lead – East 0.1 (1) to Casterton-Sandford 7.5 (47).
East Gambier now had the benefit of the strong breeze blowing to the Penola end of McDonald Park, Ayton was back on for the Cats but now looked like Boris Karloffs Imhotep from the Mummy and much like Imhotep, was striking fear in the East players’ souls as they gave him a wide berth as he cleared out of the Cats’ defensive 50.
East did however get their first goal a minute or so later, by kicking to the opposite side of the ground to Ayton.
East continued to push hard but the Cats were determined in their defence as the Dogs peppered their forwards; Shaun Lock was able to break through for the Dogs after several minutes, kicking East’s second goal.
After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, it was Billy Galpin who got the Cats back on the scoreboard with a goal after some good work by Tom Foster, Tooley and Currie.
Ferguson and Sam Lock gave their all to find a way forward for the Dogs but Mutch, Maxwell, Maddison Rogers and Ayton were proving to hard to get past and it was the Cats’ Pritchard who put the next goal on the board after some good work by Parsons, Tooley and Cleary.
Casterton Sandford held the Dogs at bay, Matt Thurkle and Oliver Foster stood tall against the red and black tsunami and were able to go into the sheds at half-time with a 40-point lead, but not before Tommy Foster gave his rendition of the Ace of Base hit ‘I saw the Sign’ – East 2.8 (20) to Casterton Sandford 9.6 (60).
The third quarter began with East doing the majority of attacking in the early minutes; the Cats were able to turn it around though and it was via some quick ball movement by Attard, McKinnon, Munro and Pritchard that saw the ball finish with Currie who kicked the Cats’ 10th goal and get things rolling for the next six minutes in the positive for the Cats.
Hamish McCrae kicked the Cats 11th goal a couple of minutes after Currie and was soon followed by a goal to Munro after a handball from Ayton, who had taken a sliding chest mark to gather the ball.
East Gambier are a proud club though and continued to try to find a way forward; Trent Burgoyne did some impressive plays and the Lock brothers threw themselves at everything but the Cats had too much to play for, Jarrad Smith intercepting the ball and then passing to Hamish McCrae who handballed to Pritchard at full forward, who turned and goaled, silencing the East Reserves’ singing and ending the East Seniors’ attacks.
From the next ball-up Matt Thurkle was able to get the ball to Currie who sent the ball long forward; Alastair McCrae took a contested mark and kicked the Cats 14th goal.
Casterton Sandford was not done yet though, as Colby Munro kicked another goal, again after a pass from Ayton and the Cats took a 74-point lead into the three-quarter-time break.
My stats man, Scott Lane, told me we had not got 100 points on the board yet this season, so the last quarter could see our Cats get bring about this milestone – East 2.12 (24) to Cats 15.8 (98).
East got off to an excellent start with two goals in the first two minutes of the last, the wind continued to favour the Penola end and long kicks negated the Cats’ close-checking play.
Casterton Sandford was not about to let the Dogs back into the game though and for the next 10 minutes, the ball spent equal amounts of time in both teams’ hands between the flanks.
Luke Thomson kicked East’s fifth goal; Luke had been very determined in chasing the ball all day and was rewarded for his efforts, but the Cats again put the clamps on their opponents as the day got wetter, colder and darker.
Maddison Rogers was met very heavily in the Cats’ backline, but he bounced back up and took his free kick and sent the ball into attack where Krieger was able to soccer through the Cats 16th goal and get the magic ton on the board.
East was able to get another goal on the board late in the quarter, but it was the Cats by 10 goals in the end – East 6.12 (48) lost to Casterton Sandford 16.12 (108).
A very determined effort by the Cats and now they are into finals.
Millicent defeated South by a very narrow margin, so the Demons will be our opponents and guess where we meet them, Cat Fans – at Blue Lake Sports Park.
Our Senior lads will not be intimidated by this prospect as we beat South at their home ground back in July and last year we beat them at Blue Lake also, so we have never lost at Blue Lake Sports Park while we have been in the Limestone Coast Football Netball Competition.
So get along next Sunday and cheer on your Mighty Cats.
CARN CATS!
