Melton’s third quarter of the Ballarat Football League grand final will haunt the side for a while to come.
Take out that quarter, and the Bloods would now be celebrating their first senior premiership since 2005.
Instead, they’re trying to forget 30 minutes of football that allowed East Point to kick nine goals to three and take the grand final from their grasp.
As much as the Bloods tried, they couldn’t regain the lead in the last quarter.
They got within a goal with six seconds to go, but it wasn’t to be.
East Point won 15.7 (97)-14.11 (95), its first premiership since 2001 when East Ballarat and Golden Point merged.
It was a shattered Bloods coach Aaron Tymms in the rooms after the game.
He took responsibility for the third quarter, saying he was out-coached.
“We lost our way a little bit and they smashed us out of the midfield,” he said.
“We were negative seven or nine [centre clearances] for the quarter.
“They had multiple inside 50 entries and there was some undisciplined stuff from us when they kicked a goal after they had already kicked a goal.
“It’s not the reason we lost. I’m lost for words.”
At half-time Tymms was a happy man, with the Bloods leading by 22 points, having had double the amount of scoring shots.
He said they had played to the game plan and it had worked well.
But East Point, which finished on top of the ladder, changed its game plan in the second half.
“They denied us the football,” Tymms said.
“We thought we were really strong on the ground balls and they sort of came out and were more ferocious and it got them in front.”
The Bloods got the last two goals of the third quarter, reducing the margin to 15 points to give them some hope.
But it was always going to be tough being two men down.
Ben Archard, who entered the game with an ankle concern, had a heavily strapped knee, while Ryan Davis’ day was also over.
The Bloods needed to get multiple goals to put the pressure back on, but it didn’t come until it was too late.
Tymms said they knew how long was left on the clock when they kicked their last goal to bring the margin back to within a goal.
“We couldn’t get those two in a row,” Tymms said.
“We were out-marked all over the ground and we were down two, with Davis and Archard off for the whole last quarter and that didn’t help the rotations.
“Mark Orr and Brett McIntyre had to be played out of position, so it threw a curve ball.
“Full credit to East Point.”
Tymms said it was a pretty even effort with Jaycob Hickey and Ryan Carter two of the better players.
Braedan Kight and Connor Griffiths kicked two goals each for the Bloods.
East Point’s Paul Kodorenko won the Roy Edwards Memorial Trophy for best on ground, while Matt Johnston won the AFL Victoria Country Medal.
Tymms said he had mixed views of how to see the season. “Had you said at the start of the year that we would have played in the grand final we would have been happy,” he said.
“Winning nine games in a row [coming into the grand final] it doesn’t seem right that we didn’t win the premiership.
“Going into the game, I thought we were in better form, but it doesn’t matter on the day.”
Tymms, who signed a two year contract when he signed on late last year, said they were in a good place to go a step further next year.
“Pretty much everyone has re-signed. We’ll be back bigger and better.”
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