International capped off a impressive 2024 campaign with a gruelling victory over Gambier Centrals in the Barry Maney Group Limestone Coast Premier League grand final on Sunday at Casadio Park.


The weather conditions made for an interesting match as the wind provided both positives and negatives for the teams, but from the opening kick off the sides came out hot as they looked to take an early lead.


Centrals got their first big chance halfway through the first half when they were awarded a free kick just outside the box of the right hand side.


What would normally be a tough distance in normal conditions proved to not be the case on Sunday as Centrals had the wind in their favour.


Bradley White took the kick for the Lions and the ball sailed through the air and found its way to the back of the net to give Centrals the lead.
Centrals took that lead into half time with the score being 1-0.


After a strong first half things began to go downhill for Centrals as they found themselves down a man when Rowan McKenzie received a red card in the 46th minute after a handball.


Matt Bueti took the subsequent penalty kick, finding the back of the net to tie the game up with plenty of time left on the clock.


With a man down Centrals did extremely well to hold off Inter as they looked to take the lead.


However, the bad luck continued for Centrals as Matthew Porter was sent off with a second yellow card after a late clipping of Matt Bueti’s leg in the 68th minute.


Finding themselves now two men down Centrals continued to fight as they were still in the game with the scores tied.


The Lions did well to hold off Inter but with fewer men on the field it was made more difficult, resulting in few chances to take back the lead as they looked to get the game to go to extra time.


Despite their efforts, Inter’s relentless attack finally broke Centrals’ defence that had stood strong for so long as Bueti scored his second goal in the match to give Inter the lead in the 86th minute.


Despite losing the lead Centrals continued to fight in the little time they had left but they just could not match Inter and fell short in the end.


Inter defeated Gambier Centrals 2-1.
Inter’s Dan Allwright was named best on ground.


After the match Inter coach Tony D’Agostino spoke to The SE Voice about the black and blue winning another premiership.


“It was really tough so those are the ones you enjoy when they are tough,” he said.


“The conditions were hard for both teams and we had to fight hard in the first half and we knew they may have been able to score against us because of the breeze but we held out to only one which was good for us.


“But the wind is not going to make a difference for us because you still gotta put the ball in the back of the net and in the second half we prevailed.


“I think we showed our true character and our true class so I am absolutely rapt and over the moon.”


D’Agostino believed his side played well in the tough conditions on the day.


“Taking into consideration the conditions of the ground and the weather I think our boys played extremely well,” he said.


“We held out when we needed to, we held strong which was what the team orders were and when we got forward we went with numbers.

“I was really pleased, I must admit I really rated it as one of the best performances we have had.”