Tara Murray
Rupertswood’s finals dreams came crashing down against West Coburg in the Essendon District Football League division 1 on Saturday.
For a large part of the game, it was the Sharks destined to finish fourth ahead of the Burgers.
But a delay due to hail and lightning in the area put paid to that with the Burgers eventually winning, 8.19 (67)-9.10 (64).
The equation heading into the game was simple, the Sharks win by 33 points or more they play finals. Lose or win by less than that the Burgers play finals.
The Sharks dominated much of the first half without putting it on the scoreboard. They had started to take control midway through the third quarter, when the umpires halted play.
At the time, the Sharks led by 34 points, enough to have them in a finals spot.
With 30 minutes to get the game restarted, both teams were praying to the weather gods for different reasons.
They would get back on after about 25 minutes.
From there it was all the Burgers to seal a finals spot.
Sharks coach Arron Bray said they were just shattered.
“I don’t know what to say to be honest,” he said post game. “We’re pretty devastated by it, more so to end up losing the game as well.
“That’s the heart breaking part for the boys as I thought we were the better side for the whole first half and then the rain came.
“It knocked our momentum, what can you do?”
Bray said they were aware that there was 30 minutes to get back on the field. He said they also knew that other games across the league were being called off.
“We were three to four minutes away from it being called,” he said.
“From what I can gather a couple of other coaches had agreed to call it off, but it was never going to be the case here. There was too much on the line.”
Bray said on top of losing the momentum, they felt a couple of decisions early in the last quarter didn’t go their way which didn’t help.
They were a player down with Shaun Stewart hurting his ankle in the first half, while Cameron McRorie and Dylan Podolczak also finished the game on the bench injured.
Bray looks back at this year with mixed feelings, knowing they knocked off the top two sides. They finished the season in fifth.
“We were 42 points up against Roxburgh Park and got beaten as well,” he said. “That’s a young group and that’s what you get from a young group.
“Get another 18 games into this year and hopefully develop a bit more after winning two games last year.
“We probably should have played finals this year though.”
Bray has already signed on for the next two years. He said all the list had signed on, saying they needed another one or two players.
“We don’t think we need a great deal,” he said. “We think we’re a pretty good side.”
