Premiers 2009!

Saturday 5th September 2009...
Woke up nervous... Set off early to get to Blighty Football Ground (a lazy 2 hour drive). Sun shining, birds singing (well they should have been if they weren't!).

What a great day for football...

Matt and the Jerilderie boys were the favourites in the Picola District Football League (North West Section) Grand Final. Opposition = Berrigan... Terriers of the league and not the favourite opposition ;)...

Jerilderie met Berrigan in the semi finals and won by 88 points... We were thinking today should be a walk in the park. A great day to be a Jerilderie supporter.

Here's some pics of the game (taken by Kelly Thomas!)

So as the day goes on we realise it's not going to be that easy... Berrigan were at every ball, in numbers. The bounce went their way, the umpires (don't get me started) seemed to see things their way, and the Jerilderie boys just didn't have the magic they'd had for the rest of the year.

Yukko... We thought it was done...

It was then that I stopped watching the game for a bit and had a read of the footy record...

Note the prediction... A cracking match that will see Jerilderie kick the winning goal in the dying minutes.

So, not wanting to be a party pooper, I kept watching as Berrigan took about 8 marks in front of goal... and kicked 8 straight points...

Then the 3/4 time siren went. There was a bit of a buzz from the crowd, wondering if this was going to be the scene of a stirring fight back from Jerilderie...

The start of the 4th... Fingers in mouths... Hearts in throats... Come on!!!

NUP... Berrigan came out firing... Jerilderie chasing... Didn't look like the fairy tale was going to come true...

But Berrigan kept kicking points...

Come the last 10 minutes of the game... Jerilderie marks the ball about 50 from goal. Berrigan guy does something wrong, first umpires call of the day to go Jerilderie's way and a 50m penalty is awarded, Jerilderie kick a goal and get within 10 points...

Berrigan start calling for their guys to use the boundary as safety... Jerilderie has other ideas... Jerilderie keep marking the ball in front of goal, and kicking points! AAAAAAaaaaaaagh.... It's geting close... But is that their chance wasted?

Back to 4 points down with about 3 minutes to go... Jerilderie's full forward marks the ball 40 out and on an angle... This could be it...

Again, NUP... He misses. Another blo***y point.

The Berrigan crowd goes wild, Jerilderie are a little quiet...

What followed was pretty surreal...

The ball was in Berrigan's forward 50... They fumbled... Jerilderie picked it up and played like they'd been possessed... Big men flying, every one of them running in support... A booming kick is launched from the middle of the square and floats into Jerilderie's forward 50 to a waiting pack of 4. The Jerilderie and Berrigan boys at the front fly for a mark and spoil respectively... Waiting at the back is the Jerilderie full-forward.

THE BALL LANDS ON HIS CHEST, UNTOUCHED!!!!!

30m out, directly in front... 3 points down...

He goes back, lines up, and slots it through the big sticks. Jerilderie 3 points up... How long to go????????

Apparently, the siren blasted as the umpire balled the ball up in the middle, less than 30 seconds after the goal was scored...

I say apparently because I didn't witness the final siren as circumstances (including too much water, baby position and sheer excitement) forced me to visit a portaloo at this point. But I can vouch for the fact the siren went shortly after the goal, mid-business ;) (too much information???)

I returned to take some pics of the following scenes... I've also got some video but will add that later once I've reloaded the software on to the computer to edit it...

Premiers 2009. Matt's in the front right sitting down.

Jerilderie streamers!

A pretty happy Matty with an oblivious James...

And a family snap...

I forgot to mention the biggest surprise of the day was Matt's brother Paul surprising him by being at the Blighty Football Ground when he lives in Toronto, Canada! Paul flew back for a quick trip and enjoyed the GF celebrations as much as Matt I think!