Eagles and Roos in Grand Final.

The Bendigo Bank Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League
Grand Final takes place at Princes Park this Sunday and Newstead and Dunolly
will be out to achieve the ultimate success for the 2009 season.

Newstead last achieved premiership glory in season 2000 when they defeated
Talbot by 46 points. Dunolly has suffered a long standing premiership
drought since 1969 which coincidentally was against Newstead when they won
by 3 points on that occasion.

Both teams are worthy competitors and if recent form is anything to go by,
then a great contest will be assured. Dunolly took the honours in Round 7 by
13 points with Shannon Motlop leading the way with best afield honours and
Berry Powell Medalist James McNamee showing his prowess by kicking four
goals. Newstead reversed the result in the final round of the home and away
season winning by 26 points, with dual winners of the Steve Fyffe Medal for
the Newstead FNC Best & Fairest, Mark Oxley and Ethan Ford leading the way,
while the dangerous forward Nathan Webster finished with six goals.

Dunolly may be a bit tired after a tough finals campaign in which they had
to fight all of the way against Harcourt in the first semi final, and had to
draw on all their reserve to fight off the determined Bulldogs in the dying
moments of the Preliminary Final last week.  Newstead will be well rested
after the break, but an interesting stat for the 2009 season shows that
Newstead were defeated during the home and away rounds following the bye.
With a week off in Round 2 and Round 13, the Roos lost to Avoca in Round 3
and Harcourt were the victors in Round 14.

However, Newstead have the runs on the board and will be confident that they
have the upper hand over the eagles after putting a stop to their winning
run in the final round of the season. Mark Oxley has been sensational this
season and was very unlucky not to win the Berry Powell medal missing a
number of games with injury. His battle with Lachlan Liddicoat will be a key
to the game, but he is extremely difficult to nullify. Oxley sets his
midfielders up with precision placement of the ball, while Liddicoat is a
strong contested mark around the ground and provides plenty of drive with
his long kicking.

James McNamee has had a sensational season, particularly in the second half
when he polled 6 best on grounds including the final game of the season
against Newstead. The Steaders hierarchy will not allow him the luxury of
roaming free that was afforded to him by the Bulldogs and the Berry Powell
Medalist will need to be at his best if the Eagles are to prevail.

Jeremy Sanders and Craig Burn are quality forwards for the Eagles, and Mark
Ramsey will most likely be matched up on Sanders who has kicked 60 goals for
the season, and a great contest between these quality players is assured.
Burn has the uncanny knack of popping up from nowhere and has the ability to
kick a long goal, so he is a definite threat for the Steaders defensive
unit.

Newstead has a number of avenues to goal with Nathan Webster being the main
focal point late in the season, with support from Tom Reece and Nick Brown.

Dunolly defenders, Trevor Ronke, Matt Brady and Marty Kelly will have their
hands full to contain the Steaders dangerous forwards but are more than
capable of doing so.

Dunolly will be looking for big games from their star recruits in Shannon
Motlop, Robbie Ahmat and Tim Karpany who have all performed on the big stage
and it will be vitally important that these players play at their best if
the Eagles are to win their first premiership since 1969.

Both teams will be worthy of premiership success, but Dunolly is definitely
the success story of the season and it will be a fantastic effort on their
behalf if they are to get over the line in the 2009 MCDFNL Grand Final. 

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