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With the final round completed the Greater Northern Men’s ladder is the closest it has been for a number of years, with 3 teams only separated by goal difference
Final Ladder
City Marians 46, Queechy Penguins, Devonport 37 (Goal Difference 39), Smithton 37 (GD 38), Launceston City 37 (GD 37), South Burnie 31, Tamar Churinga 15, West Devonport 12, South Launceston 10.
South Burnie, had to contend with 6thposition, after being outclassed by Queechy Penguins on the Burnie turf. Queechy dominated from the onset, with Kieron Arthur controlling the centre and working well with forwards Khan Riley and Matthew Selby to consistently pressure the South defence. Queechy pushing hard, were two goals up midway through the half, when South started to gain some momentum in attack through Tom Trevarthen and Brent Jago, but they were unable to convert. Similar play continued early in the second half, as both sides fought for ascendancy, but Queechy showed more accuracy, with Khan Riley and Matthew Selby scoring 2 a piece, while Tom Trevarthen and Jordan Dart scored for the Hawks.
City Marians struggled to play their normal game on the slow Devonport turf, while the Spirits showed they are still a force to be dealt with in the finals, holding onto 3rdplace on the ladder and a home final. Devonport, using their home turf advantage, were able to run the ball quickly into attack, while City’s ball movement continually let them down, not allowing them to retain possession. Devonport’s goalie, Josh Berwick made some good saves, while in attack Bruce Will and Jamie Luck were combining well to eliminate the City defence. City’s Eddie Gates wove some magic, to work the ball into the circle on a number of occasions, but was not able to break through Devonport’s dogged defence. Hayden Lamprey broke through late in the second half to put City on the board, but with Devonport 3 up, were not able to reduce the deficit.
Launceston City had a 9 nil win over Tamar Churinga, and while they would have been aware of the goals needed to improve their ladder position, were not able improve their 5thposition due to Tamar’s hard working defence. Dan James played hard all games in goals, for Tamar, with good support from Rohan John and Siba Vandoorchot .
Smithton were dominant in the first half of the game against South Launceston with 4 unanswered goals . Richard Cornish, was on target with 3 for the Saints while Aydan Popowski and Mitchell Futcher scored 1 a piece. South defence in Chris Banfield and Rod Neville worked tirelessly all game, and held the Saints to 1 goal in the second half.