Kalangadoo 11.16 d Hatherleigh 3.3

Minor premiers Kalangadoo has claimed its 12th A Grade premiership following a stirring all-the-way 61-point victory against Hatherleigh in the Mid South Eastern Football League grand final at Kalangadoo on Saturday.

The Magpies mastered the soft ground, squalling wind and heavy rain to lay claim to the Wilf Sprengel premiership shield for the first time since 2019.

After succumbing to Port MacDonnell in the season decider at Tantanoola a year ago, the black-and-whites were hungrier for success, had coach Kevin Stark’s superior game plan and more switched-on players than their opponents.

It was a fitting conclusion to 2022 for the victors as they had lost only one game during the minor round.

The size of the victory meant the rare home ground advantage was irrelevant to the result.

The visitors had the first bit of luck when skipper Joe Ferguson-Lane won the toss and booted to the northern end of the oval which was slightly favoured by a strong cross breeze.

The Eagles looked to use the dry ball to advantage but it was the Magpies who scored the first major.

It was a fluky soccer-off-the-ground at the two-minute mark from ace forward Michael Krieger.

The MSEFL’s leading goalkicker in 2021 and 2022 had been forced to miss the preliminary final due to a one-match ban for rough play.

Krieger’s goal was the only one of the opening term as heavy rain fell.

Kalangadoo successfully flooded the backlines and bottled up the play in the “dead” scoreboard pocket.

It was a battle-of-defences for the opening seven minutes of the second term until Krieger broke the stalemate.

He was on the end of a superb pass from Sam McManus and converted from a set shot.

Within a minute, Hatherleigh finally marked a six-pointer on the scoreboard courtesy of coach Jake Dowdy.

Some good luck came in the next 15 minutes for the Magpies which resulted in major scores.

Veteran Ben Mules scored a miracle goal with a dribbly kick from the tightest of angles while team mate Al Lyon brought up the desired result from two set shots.

One came from a free due to a high tackle while the other resulted from a disputed mark in the goal square.

At the other end of the ground, a goal was booted by Jake Wight and Hatherleigh’s deficit was a sizeable 22 points at the long break.

The third term was again marred by heavy rain and the oval lights were turned on.

A battle of defences raged as the only goals to be scored came from Krieger and Hatherleigh’s Sam Gray.

Midway through the term, Eagle forward Brad Mitchell limped from the oval with a serious leg injury.

He had been his club’s leading goalscorer in 2022 in his first season at Hatherleigh.

The scoreboard at three-quarter time had the neat symmetry of 6.6 to 3.3 with the Magpies having one hand on the trophy.

The Eagles were soon out of the contest by early in the last term after major scores were recorded by Sam McManus and Andrew Stone.

After booting a goal in the three preceding terms, Krieger then capped off a splendid “big dance” performance with three more majors in the last.

The Eagles seldom went ahead of centre and their solitary major meant the losing margin exceeded 10 goals.

To my mind, the best Magpies were onballer Tye McManus, defender Matt Fatchen and Krieger and this trio were worthy candidates for the Stan Jones Memorial Medal as best-on-ground.

Field umpires Travis Lockwood, Neil Webber and Brett Watson gave the nod to McManus.

This was the correct decision along with many others made by them during the course of the two hours of play.

The McManus medal win was captured by visiting photographer and his paternal uncle Justin McManus who is multiple Walkley Award winner with The Melbourne Age.

My pick of the Eagles were ruckman Mark Marriott, defender Jed Telfer and onballer Jordan Galpin.

The two clubs have played each other since Hatherleigh entered the MSEFL in 1947 but Saturday was the first time the Eagles and Magpies had met in a season decider.

Owing chiefly to the grey skies and wet weather forecast and a live AFL preliminary final telecast, Saturday’s crowd paid $30,870 at the gate and this was well below the league record.

Bookmakers had been laying slim odds before the start of this season of the two powerhouse clubs of the past decade meeting in the grand final.

Among the crowd was Max Childs who has seen every MSEFL grand final since 1947.

The 87-year-old is a former Glencoe Football Club president and multiple premiership player.