Heartbreak for Nagambie seniors in Kyabram District League grand final

The Saturday afternoon matinee at Mooroopna Recreation Reserve saw Lancaster blitz Nagambie 19.11 (125) to 8.12 (60), marking the club’s first consecutive senior flags since the 1980-81 halcyon period.

Rapt was an emotion running thick among the Wombats and nobody was quite as delighted as coach Luke Davies.

“We absorbed a fair bit of pressure in the first half, they really come out to play,” he said.

“We were able to absorb it, we probably capitalised on the scoreboard early and got that little bit of a buffer and we were able to grow that after half-time.

“If you look at the age of our list over a whole between reserves and seniors there’s a lot of young blokes, so the potential to continue this on is there.

“But obviously they’re bloody hard to win and we’ve done a great job in the last two years.”

A cagey and tentative start ensued as both sides sized each other out like prize fighters and Laker Nathan Fothergill registered the first blow.

Lancaster weapon Zac Cerrone then hung one up over his shoulder.

All eyes were on the goal umpire to see if he’d give it.

He did and suddenly Lancaster was off the mark.

The Lakers learnt the hard way you could not afford Cerrone any space inside 50, the sniper converting in the final phase of the first quarter for a three-point lead.

During the second quarter Cameron Simpson was excellent around the centre, making himself busy and putting his head over the footy.

His industry had the Sherrin trickle into Coby O’Neill’s hands who smashed it high and handsome for Lancaster’s third.

If Lancaster was cooking on gas, what came after just about blew the house down.

Jake Mills palmed the ball away from being rushed behind and in came Morrie Serra who gyrated on the boundary line and clipped one home from an impossible angle.

You would have needed a protractor to calculate the exact dogleg of the shot’s trajectory, with shouts in the crowd heralding it the most ridiculous goal Mooroopna Recreation Reserve has seen this decade.

The scores read 46-17 at the half, but four Lancaster goals in seven minutes early in the third term had the Wombats home and hosed.

However, there was something for the Nagambie fans to cheer about.

Tom Barnes popped up with the most outrageous hanger of the season, springboarding off his marker to bring the ball down from the stratosphere.

However, he completely missed the mark from the set shot, summing up the Lakers’ day.

Lancaster had a 46-point lead after a 34-minute third term and, as soon as the siren sounded, a fracas broke out which saw Nicholas Ryan ejected from the game.

After a few back-and-forth attempts, Serra manufactured the last involvement of the game, hanging out the back for an intelligent mark on the siren, but missing the shot.

Davies thanked his staff after such a fantastic 18 months, saying the template has been laid for further Wombats’ success.

“It’s a great result for our club. We’ve been pretty grounded and process-driven in the past two or three years,” he said.

“We’ve just been able to get the group right at the right time of year and get the results.”