Tara Murray
A late Gisborne comeback fell just short as it was a tough day on the football field for the Bulldogs in the Bendigo Football League grand finals.
Having seen their under-18s and reserves suffer losses earlier in the day, the Bulldogs were hoping to turn the tide in the seniors against Sandhurst, which had claimed the other two football premierships.
The Bulldogs led by seven points at quarter time before trailing by two at the main break.
They call the third quarter the premiership quarter and it was that for the Dragons. The Dragons kicked five goals to one to open by a 25 point lead heading into the final quarter.
The Bulldogs managed to come home strong, but fell just short, losing 10.8 (68)-10.4 (64).
Bulldogs skipper Jack Reaper said it wasn’t to be for them.
“We left our run too late,” he said. “We played some ordinary football in the second and third quarters.
“We had the wind in the second quarter and we said to not bomb it in long and we bombed it in long.
“In the third quarter they had the wind and we made a few bad decisions to leave us chasing in the last quarter.”
Reaper said they still had faith they could get the job done in the final quarter. They kicked two goals within the first five minutes to make the game interesting.
Sandhurst was able to get one back to steady and it would be enough for them to hold on.
“We knew that we could score goals quickly and we kicked two in the first five minutes,” Reaper said.
“We were hoping to not be in that position of having to kick five or six goals. We took the game on and it was a case of trying to try and win the game by a couple of goals or lose it by 10 goals.
“We got a goal in the 31st minute to get it back to four points. Sandhurst were able to hold on from there.”
Pat McKenna kicked three goals for the Bulldogs, while Matthew Merrett kicked two goals.
Reaper was named the Bulldogs best along with Liam Spear and Macklan Lord.
In the reserves, the Bulldogs lost to Sandhurst 11.5 (71)-4.11 (35), while the under-18s lost to Sandhurst, 12.14 (86)-2.5 (17).
While disappointed with the way the season finished, Reaper said they’d made some big inroads with seven of the club’s eight senior sides all making grand finals.
Last season the senior side failed to make finals after winning the premiership in 2022.
“It was much better than what happened last year,” he said. “We’ve re-signed most of the list and the coaches have re-signed.
“Hopefully we can pick up some recruits and continue to build. Hopefully we’ll come back better next year, there’ll be a lot of fire in the belly.”
