Report by Torben Fink-Jensen

Apart from Olivia who was having her wisdom teeth out, we had the same team as our semi final night. Richmond maintained their challenges with numbers but managed 7 this time, unfortunately for them without their star goalie. We started well with a goal from Gen in CF who managed to hold off the CB and score easily. But then a string of unexpected umpiring decisions saw some of our players out for major fouls and a penalty, and Richmond were taking advantage of our lax defence taking the quarter time lead with 1-5. Luckily Essendon came out with better intent in the second quarter and with Gen learning from the first half that the refs weren't going to protect her, she managed to become much more of a threat with 2 goals. If she was marked, we had plenty of outside shooters to give to and Emmy and Alex in particular were scoring. We evened up to 5-5 before they got their first for the quarter and we matched them 7-7 by half time. The third was definitely the championship quarter and we put the pressure on early  and managed the first goal. Alex was finding space and managed a couple. Ash sucked a penalty but we couldn't convert. Katie was playing well in goals and keeping things quiet at her end. Bene was putting herself on the score sheet including a fantastic leap at CF. Emmy chimed in with one to make it 12-8. With a 4 goal lead we felt we could keep control of the final quarter and with Phoebe scoring the first goal we had a solid 5 goal lead. Richmond were now tiring from playing 7 on 12 and our defence had their measure as they were swimming the ball up. They did manage one goal to bring the gap to 4 goals with 5 mins left, and then one more but they needed 3 goals in 2 minutes by this stage. Then Kyrene stole the ball from Richmond, sucked a major foul before passing to her sister Denise who hit the top corner of the net and set the seal on the game at 14-10 with 30 seconds to go. That was the final score as Alex was named player of the match.

Essendon defeated Richmond : 14 - 10   Goals : Alex 4, Emmy 3, Gen 3, Bene 2, Phoebe 1, Denise 1

BELOW : 2024 Senior Summer State League Premiers!!! (Photo courtesy of Danielle Tulloch more pics on our FB page)

Report by Marcus Jones

Here we are – the coveted and live telecast WPV MSL4 Grand Final with a full MSAC Grandstand  – many people dare to dream about the MSL4 Grand Final, only a select few get to experience the elite high pressure cooker environment. The Essendon boys realised that dream on Saturday…………..the whole season game down to one match – that famous 2nd Saturday in December – sometimes.

 The boys were pumped but also nervous – we hadn’t beaten our worthy opponents all year and our mix of youth and experience had different levels of fitness. Once the match started it was apparent Geelong had came to play and for old blokes like me it was definitely faster than the normal season. But that didn’t matter – Essendon were here to play. The first quarter was tight with both teams prioritising defence over attack. Play opened up a little in the 2nd quarter and the Essendon boys started exposing Geelong in swimming – one minor problem it was clear we left our shooting arms on the side of the pool – despite many efforts we could not get the ball in to the back of the net.

 The 3rd quarter continued to be evenly matched with a highlight being an MSAC lifeguard appearing to ask a Geelong player to leave……….what could this be for?

 The 4th quarter was close but the Essendon team started to gain slight ascendancy in work rate and swimming. The Essendon boys got to 1 goal up with a beautiful shot from Tinder star Ambrose. Then with 3:32 left on the clock with the good guys in front the game was stopped………..but why…………well dear reader……….it was because of the incident in the 3rd quarter above. It turns out a Geelong player had just a little too much Christmas cheer the night before and decided to unload his Christmas cheer into the pool drainage system – that meant all people out of the water for 30min to verify water quality was OK………….so we waited.

The game restarted with Geelong in possession – Essendon had to hold Geelong off and score one more goal……and try as we might, we could not score that one more goal and with 2min to play Geelong evened the game at 7 all. We had opportunities to score but whatever we did we just could not get the ball into the net. The final siren went at 7 all – this means penalty shootout. Our goalie (Felix) said our shooters are having a $%#$%# match so give him the ball – so not only did Felix save 3/5 goals he also took the last shot…………and unfortunately for us we only scored 1/5 so the spoils go to Geelong and we get to talk about what could have been…..which was a great match, but just missed. On the up side, Ryan Mills was awarded player of the match, and you can his autograph later.

Well done guys to everyone, a great season and I personally enjoyed it more than most other seasons. A special thank-you to Felix and Young Sam’s mums for bringing him to our matches every Thursday and Lee’s partner Carly for doing the table most weeks.

Essendon were defeated by Geelong : 7 - 8 (1-3 penalty shoot out)   Goals : TBC

BELOW : The MSL4 team strategise during the 30min enforced break (Photo courtesy of Torben Fink-Jensen, more pics on our FB page)