Ben McCalman and John Allitt put in a hard defensive effort, tackling a Tungamah opponent during the reserves grand final.
Photo by
Rebecca Flisher
Tungamah have stormed from fourth to premiers, capping off a gruelling finals run with a gritty 22-point win over the Deni Rovers in the reserves grand final at Memorial Park, Deniliquin.
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The home side made the Bears earn every bit of their 11.5 (71) to 7.7 (49) victory.
On a scrappy day where clean footy was rare and stoppages dominated, they found the moments that mattered and crucially, converted their chances when Deni could not.
The Rovers entered as favourites, having finished second with 14 wins, but Tungamah’s size and hunger was obvious early.
The Rovers got the ball forward to start the match, but the Bears’ defence negated the early attacks and slingshotted the ball from their backline leading to the first two goals for Tungamah.
Despite this the Rovers brought back momentum through two Aden Bermingham crumbing goals before the quarter time break.
After quarter time, the physical nature of the match continued.
Tungamah had another good start to a quarter, kicking two goals within five minutes.
Not to be outmatched early, the Rovers stood up through Jordyn McCulloch, Bobby Hall and Matt Horne.
A set shot goal was managed by Taj Payne, who earned a holding the ball free kick due to his forward pressure, and another from a calm Tristan Fitzsimmons, assisted by Joey Hay, lifted the home side.
In the final moments before half-time, the Rovers gave away a goal due to a costly 100m penalty to leave the margin at 5 points.
In the third quarter, the contest tightened even further.
Both teams looked to break the game open with the Bears holding territory for the first 15 minutes of the quarter.
Tungamah surged forward through chaos entries, with Tom Irvine snaring a goal from a fortunate bounce on the line before Tyler Greene coolly nailed one from the pocket.
Irvine snapped truly again, and suddenly the margin had ballooned to 22 points.
The Bears’ three goals left the Rovers needing something special to give them a chance at a comeback.
Two Bailey Caruso goals late in the quarter - a set shot goal and a crumbing goal running into the goal square, set up from a kick from Kaiden Joss and contested by Scott Howard - gave the Rovers some confidence heading into three quarter time.
The required margin to overcome for the Rovers in the last quarter was 16 points.
Needing to start well, the Rovers’ hopes took a hit with a rapid Tungamah goal less than a minute into the last quarter.
From there, the Rovers fought hard and mustered another Bailey Caruso goal, set up by Jack Pekin, along with three other behinds in the quarter.
However this wasn’t enough to overcome Tungamah’s physical dominance in the last quarter, leading to the Bears’ reserves premiership win.
Ash Saunders gave Tungamah a target up front and slotted four goals, while Tyler Greene and Tom Irvine were sharp at ground level.
In contrast, Deni’s ball movement stalled too often, their forwards starved or wasteful when opportunities did come. Regardless, Deni refused to go quietly.
James Kirby and John Allitt kept battling in the ruck all day, while Bailey Caruso (three goals) and Aden Birmingham (two) gave the Rovers some spark.
For Tungamah co-coach Matthew Bourke, it was a victory built on resilience.
“It feels amazing. It sounds amazing,” he said post-game.
“I’m very grateful and appreciative of what the group’s been able to put together.”
Bourke admitted the loss to Deni back in round 10, a wet and windy June long weekend, had lingered.
“They had the real end of us that day. So it was good to get back, we went to work on them and implemented a lot of it today.”
