By Tara Murray
Sunbury Lions will be haunted across the summer by a poor quarter of football which ended their Ballarat Football League season.
At three quarter time on Sunday in their elimination final against Melton, the Lions were looking like they would be playing off for a grand final spot next week.
But it all started to go wrong for the Lions at the start of the last quarter.
Melton would kick the next six goals to hit the front. Once in front, they stayed there, winning 11.11 (77)-9.11 (65).
Lions coach Travis Hodgson said he saw some signs towards the end of the third quarter they were worrying.
“To go into the last quarter three and half goals up with a little bit of momentum, we were in a good spot.
“They had 11 scoring shots to three quarter time and they had 12 scoring shots in the last quarter.
“We pretty much capitulated from the outset of that quarter. They had 12 scores from 15 inside 50s, there was not a whole lost of resistant which was the disappointing thing.”
Earlier in the game, Hodgson had been happy with how his side had taken control of the game.
They kicked a couple of goals late in the second quarter when the rain started to fall. They then dominated most of the third quarter, but weren’t able to convert as much as they would have liked.
Hodgson said even though they hadn’t made the most of their dominance, they were still in a good spot.
“I thought we gained control of the game and I felt like we were outplaying them and starting to out run them on the outside.
“The third quarter it continue that way, but we probably didn’t as much damage as we probably could have. In a low scoring game, they had kicked five goals at three quarter time.
“We were in a strong position and we weren’t good enough to close it out.”
Leigh Brennan finished with three goals for the Lions.
Hodgson said midfield duo Alik Magin and Lachie Bramble were their best.
He said Jack Sheahan and Corey Mobilio both did strong defensive jobs.
“I still thought we had a fair share of good players,” he said.
“This looked a lot different conversation half hour before the final siren. We had done a fair bit right at that point, it’s a bit sour how it finished.”
Making it harder to take, results had fallen Sunbury’s way and they would have secured a double chance and two shots at making the grand final.
Hodgson said it was hard to judge whether the season had been a success.
“After missing finals last year, the goal was to play finals,” he said. “To make finals, ticks that off for us.
“To get to fourth and to be on equal wins with top, we probably thought in the end at least good enough to win a final.”
The Sunbury Lions reserves and under-19s both had wins.
