THE wait for football and netball premiership glory will have to go another year for the Melton and Moorabool region.
While Ballarat Football League grand final day held a lot of promise, with four starters from the combined region, none could walk away a winner. It means a team from the Melton — Moorabool region has still not won on BFL grand final day since 2005.
Perhaps the tone was set for the day in the earliest event, C grade netball.
Bacchus Marsh was well supported, with a healthy band of travelling fans splitting loyalties between under-18.5 footy and the netball court at Eastern Oval.
The bulk of the other netball grades were there in support, draping the fences with red, black and yellow banners.
And it looked like the day was going to start perfectly as the Marsh held a steady four-goal lead with five minutes left in the match.
Then, seemingly from nowhere, things turned sour. Redan charged back to within a goal and Bacchus Marsh couldn’t find the net.
For four agonising minutes and a string of misses under the ring, the game slipped away and the Cobras lost 27-28.
News was filtering through that there hadn’t been a goal in the under-18.5s for a while . . . Bacchus Marsh was stuck on two goals at the last change with no chance of a comeback.
Darley, even though it fought hard in the first quarter, was not able to match Redan in the reserves.
And Melton’s A grade netball grand final was a steamrolling. The Bloods captured the attention of the Ballarat league by getting to the big day at least, upsetting the stranglehold on the top places by the Ballarat-based clubs.
With only Sunbury from the eastern bloc crashing the Ballarat party, the wait will continue for Melton, Melton South, Darley and Bacchus Marsh to bring a premiership back to the Melton-Moorabool region.
