AFTER two straight grand final defeats, the Bomaderry Tigers have got their claws back on the Blackmore Bolden Shield, by defeating St Georges Basin 3-nil on Saturday.
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At a windy Ison Park, the first chance of the physical match fell to Bomaderry midfielder Brodie Chapman, after being played through by a sharp ball from Jordan Haddow.
The former set himself but Basin keeper Sean Peek was up to the task.
Through the tense opening 25 minutes, both sides had chances to break the deadlock, including the Dragons from a dangerous free-kick.
Then in the 36th minute, Basin had their best chance to hit the lead, when a deflected Tim White shot floated onto the crossbar, which saw Tigers shot-stopper Adam Arnott collide with the goal and hurt his knee, in attempting to keep the ball out.
The game was stopped for some time but the courageous Arnott soldiered on.
Just before the break, the drought was finally broken.
A quick heads up play by Harry Ellem caught the Basin defenders napping and saw Ben Seyffer run into plenty of room with a lone-range through-ball.
The striker made no mistake and slotted it with his right boot, to make it 1-nil in the 42nd minute.
Despite a free-kick to either side before oranges, the scoreline remained 1-nil at half-time.
Just after the resumption, things got worse for the red and whites with Peek re-aggravating a quadricep injury, seeing him being replaced by Alexander Morvai in the 48th minute.
Minutes later, defender Ben Cubbo was the match's first recipient of a yellow, following a heavy tackle on Chapman.
The black and golds lead was doubled in the 62nd minute, when Sam Baxter converted it with his right boot, after a scramble in the box following a corner - to make it 2-nil.
After this goal, the game opened up significantly, with Basin chasing the game.
In the 65th minute, Morvai kept Basin in it by saving a one on one with Tigers' Chapman, minutes before a Dan McGinn break for the Dragons was snuffed out by Ellem.
Another chance went begging soon after for the electric Chapman as the match entered the final 20 minutes - after collecting the ball from deep inside his own end, Chapman went the length and beat two defenders but blasted the ball over the goal, as the ledger remained 2-nil.
Dale Russell's troops had all the run at this stage, missing another two chances to put the game to bed within the space of five minutes.
Any hopes of a fightback by the competition champions were dashed with eight to play with centre-back Cubbo was shown his second yellow bringing down Brendan Kellett - reducing his side to 10 men.
The overwhelming pressure by the Tigers finally broke deep in injury time, when Kellett broke free down the left and served up an inviting cross for Seyffer to score his second of the afternoon.
The scoreline could have blown out to even more if not for some solid reflex saves by Morvai, as it remained 3-nil until full-time.
In the win, which sees the Bomaderry Oval-based club claim their second Shoalhaven District Football Association first grade title in four years, Seyffer was named man of the match, with Ellem, Chapman and Lachlan Hucman also starring.
While for the Basin, who were playing in their first grand final since 2006, recently named SDFA Player of the Year Fraser Macqueen, Dane McGinn, White and Cubbo did all they could for the Dragons.