WHAT a day it was at Romsey Park on Saturday for the Riddell District Football Netball League grand finals, which was dominated by Diggers Rest.
Diggers jumped out of the blocks early in the seniors against Wallan, kicking six of the first seven goals to the scoreboard end.
The Burras’ Marcus Calvaresi had two of those and Cal Moore also joined in on the fun early.
Wallan looked down and out within the first 20 minutes of the game, but Chris Stewart, Lachlan Smart and Steven Boyall all stood up late in the quarter, bringing the score back to 40-28 at the first break.
With momentum gathered at the first break, it put the foot down to kick the first two of the second quarter, after a yellow card was given out for a dangerous tackle.
But it wasn’t long before Diggers kicked the final four of the quarter, unanswered, to lead 65-42 at the main break.
Moore and Calvaresi continued their dominance of the game, kicking the opening two of the third quarter, which set Wallan back to 35 points the margin.
From the fourth-minute mark in the quarter, 10 additional goals were kicked, with six of them going the way of Wallan, including three from Stewart to take his day to five so far, while Moore had his sixth to that point.
It looked like too much of a task at the final break, with the minor premiers losing by 26 points at the time, needing some inspiration from the semi-final against Kyneton just two weeks ago, where they came back from over 30 points down with 12 minutes to go.
Calvaresi kicked the first of the quarter, taking the margin to 32 points, and then the Magpies started to gather momentum.
Blaide Dickson and Hayden Gill had three between them within seven minutes, taking the margin to 14 points at the 10-minute mark of the quarter.
From there, it was a genuine arm wrestle as both teams missed opportunities, until Jaidyn Caruana, the captain for Diggers Rest, kicked the sealer, taking the game to 19 points with less than five minutes to go.
Stewart kicked a consolation goal late in the piece, but in the end, it was Diggers Rest who were too strong for the Magpies, defeating them by 14 points, 121-107.
Another great grand final for the league to hang their hat on.
Calvaresi was named the best player on the ground after kicking four goals and having close to 25 disposals.
Moore, Caruana and Markov were all solid as well, but for Wallan, it was Stewart’s six-goal performance alongside the likes of Nash King, Boyall, Gill, Dion Hill and Owen Fowler who stood out for them.
In the reserves grand final, it was much the same, as Wallan also took on the Diggers Rest side.
Wallan had the form coming into the match, winning its last 37 matches, which included last year’s grand final.
It was a tight first quarter to start the day, with only one point the difference splitting the two sides at the first break.
Similarly, in the second, both teams kicked another two goals each, which meant only two behinds split them at the main break.
It’s called the premiership quarter for a reason, and Diggers were all over Wallan in the third, which is what made the difference between the two teams.
Jack Charlton was rock solid in defence all day for Wallan, but when the pressure came, he needed more help down back.
Diggers took a 23-point margin into the final term and would have been nervous when Max Russell kicked the first of the quarter for the Magpies in the first minute.
But from that point on, another genuine arm wrestle closed out the game, handing the flag to the Burras and ending a historic run for the Magpies Reserves.
Alexander Crawford, Charlton, Brayden Byrne, Casey Nelson, Russell and Jordan Roberts did all they could for Wallan, but it wasn’t quite good enough to take down Logan Carroll, who was named best on ground for Diggers Rest in their 55-38 win.
In the under-19.5s, it was a genuine showdown between Gisborne Giants and Woodend-Hesket, which went down to the wire to split the two sides.
It looked all over, even at three-quarter time, where the Giants took a lead of 46-17 into the final break.
https://ncreview.com.au/2026/09/15/historic-netball-final – Check out the full Netball Wrap here
But the Hawks came out to kick four goals and seven behinds, only to lose by a narrow margin of four points.
Full credit to the Giants, though, who only lost one game for the season and were good enough to hold on to win the flag.
