CMFL SENIOR GRAND FINAL
Saturday, September 20 2003, 2.30pm
Swan Hill Recreation Reserve

LAKE BOGA 19.10 (124)
defeated
SWAN HILL 11.15 (81)

Pies simply Lee-thal

RON THOMPSON, Swan Hill Guardian Monday 22nd September 2003

Lake Boga triumphed over Swan Hill in an awesome display of finals football, belting the disappointing Swans by 43 points to claim their first flag since 1975. In the lead-up to the match most pundits favoured the Swans on the back of their ten-goal victory in their previous qualifying final meeting. What those so-called experts forgot was that to win a grand final you have to produce the goods when it matters most and yet again Swan Hill came up well short, even more so than in last year’s loss to Woorinen. Lake Boga played stunning football, hard at the man, and with a level of commitment and desire that was not going to be beaten.

The Magpies were superbly led by their inspirational captain-coach Robbie Lee who proved both his class and courage on the big stage and showed why he must be rated one of the best playing coaches the league has seen. The first quarter saw the Magpies kick with the aid of a two-goal breeze. The Pies’ ruck ace Wes Pye lined up at centre half forward on Ash Connick, leaving Josh Bode to start in the ruck against Ryan O’Sullivan. Swans captain Lachy Beasy lined up at centre half forward and was picked up by Nathan Quick and the tagging role on potential match winner Dean Bennett was handed to Scott Smith. The Magpies got a dream start with a brilliant passage of play starting from a strong Bode mark in defence who passed to hard nut Ben Pumpa. He found Wes Pye with a great kick from inside the square. Pye wasted no time in swinging onto his awkward looking left foot and launched a massive kick that unbelievably rolled through for the first goal of the match. The big crowd, the majority of who were barracking for the Magpies erupted and set the Boga players alight. Magpie full-forward Rikki Pumpa added another shortly afterwards courtesy of a 50-metre penalty from opponent Michael Kelly and already cracks were beginning to appear in Swan Hill’s armour.

Bode was winning the centre clearances, Lee was dominating the packs and the Boga half-back line of Robbie Taverna and Ben Coloe was cutting Swan Hill to pieces.

The Swans managed to kick their first goal at the 14-minute mark through a 40-metre set shot by Ryan O’Sullivan. The Pies were quick to respond with two more goals being added by Rikki Pumpa. A long set shot from Cliff Ryan set up by a brilliant Glenn Smith tackle saw the Pies all over the shell-shocked Swans. A much-needed late goal to Chris Caldow saw the Swans trailing by 20 points at the first break. The second term saw Swan Hill responding to Boga’s early challenge. Bennett moved to the forward line in the hope of getting into the game, and to try, albeit unsuccessfully to shake the Scott Smith tag, but it was Tom Chatfield whose early goal reduced the margin to 14 points. Just as Swan Hill was beginning to settle and work their way back into the match they were dealt two huge body blows when key ruckman Ryan O’Sullivan was forced from the field due to an eye injury. Shortly afterwards Dean Bennett left the field nursing a nasty head wound. Strange as it may seem the Swans appeared to lift without two of their key players and goals to Shaun Lawry and Michael Kelly had them back within six points of the Pies.

Gene Brooks was damaging in the midfield whilst Brendan McIntyre and Vaughan Noonan were leading the Swan defence strongly. However an errant kick from Shaun Murray that ended up in Scott Smith’s hands paved the way for Robbie Lee to kick an important goal against the run of play. Swan small man Michael Wright proved to be handy replacement for Bennett and when he kicked a goal from amongst heavy traffic, the margin was back to a point. If ever the term “premiership quarter” was going to count for anything, Lake Boga came out in the third quarter and played one. The Pies could do no wrong and put together a powerful display of hard and fast running football. They had winners on every line from Nathan Quick deep in defence to Coloe and Taverna across half-back, Ben Pumpa and Glenn Smith in the middle and Cliff Ryan and Brock Parsons running through half-forward. Playing his best game for the season, Robbie Taverna typified the Boga style of play with a dashing sprint through the middle of the ground which he capped off with a brilliant 60 metre running goal.

Along with other goals from VCFL medalist Glenn Smith, Brock Parsons and Lee, the Magpies were now well in control and on the way to creating their own slice of history. They kicked eight goals to the devastated Swans two setting up a commanding 39 point lead at three quarter-time. The match was beyond the Swans’ reach.

With huge crowd support behind them, the Magpies gave their fans a dream start to the final term. Classy forward Rikki Pumpa opened proceedings by kicking his fourth for the day. This was soon followed by another to Taverna who registered another of his trademark goals on the run. The margin had now blown out to 53 points. When Caldow added to his meagre tally of goals for the day, having kicked over 100 for the season the deafening silence from the crowd told the story.

The rest of the quarter is now history and simply prompted wild scenes of celebrations on the outer wing. It seemed as if the whole township of Lake Boga had congregated there to cheer their heroes on. At the twenty-minute mark, after Cliff Ryan marked and goaled from within the goal square, Boga’s version of Collingwood’s infamous supporter “Joffa” ran around the boundary signalling victory.

On the day Lake Boga were simply too good in all aspects of the game. They were better at the one-percenters, countered the Swans talls with their defence and exploited their lack of pace and physicality. Apart from O’Sullivan’s injury there are no excuses for Swan Hill. They simply had too many of their big name players go missing when the heat was on.

Boga virtually won every position on the ground which was true testament to their ability to rise to the occasion.

The final margin of 43 points told the story.

Goalkickers
Swan Hill: Tom Chatfield, Chris Caldow, Shaun Lawry - 2. Michael Kelly, Michael Wright, Ryan O’Sullivan, Bernard Rigby, Luke O’Sullivan - 1.
Lake Boga: Rikki Pumpa, Cliff Ryan - 4. Glenn Smith - 3. Brock Parsons, Robbie Taverna, Robbie Lee - 2. Wes Pye, Ben Pumpa - 1.

Best players
Swan Hill: Anthony Foott, Vaughan Noonan, Wayne Landry, Brendan McIntyre, Michael Wright, Gene Brooks.
Lake Boga: Glenn Smith, Robbie Lee, Scott Smith, Cliff Ryan, Ricky Lynas.

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