IT was third time lucky for the Gerringong Breakers in Saturday’s Shoalhaven Football grand final.
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After back-to-back penalty shoot-out losses, Gerringong finally broke through for the club’s second ever Bolden Blackmore Shield, defeating competition champions Bomaderry 2-nil at Ison Park.
After a slow start to the game, largely due to the wind, Gerringong opened the day’s scoring.
After winning a corner, Breakers’ Kane Rowe whipped in the cross and after the Tigers failed to clear it, defender Nick Astin toed it over Scott Fagerlund’s head and into the back of the net, in the 19th minute.
Five minutes after falling behind, the Tigers had their first strong chance, when the ball fell into the path of Kevin Jackson in a one on one situation against goal keeper Javid Sadrnia but the shot stopper deflected the attempt, to maintain the Breakers lead.
The game had well and truly come to life at the midway point of the first half. Breakers’ Jordan Lando was the next to miss a chance, after a sharp interplay with Jake Packham – minutes before Scott Fagerlund pulled off an amazing save on Lando.
Eventually the Breakers were rewarded for their strong play, when they were awarded a penalty, after the Tigers handballed it in the box.
Kane Rowe made no mistake from the spot and the Breakers led 2-nil after 32 minutes - which is how the score remained until the break.
At the break, Bomaderry introduced Nick Evans to the contest, to try and change the momentum of the game, but he only lasted 15 minutes before leaving the field with injury.
Despite both teams pushing themselves to the limit, most notably Bomaderry, who were chasing the game, neither team created too many clear cut chances in the second half – handing the Breakers their first grand final win since 2012.
“Personally, the win is a massive relief for me because I don’t think I could have handled another grand final loss – especially in penalties,” Breakers coach Jadon Lavington said.
“It’s just so good to get the win and the most pleasing thing about it is we played the way we wanted to play for the full 90 minutes.”
In the win, the Breakers were led by man of the match Matthew Lando, Michael Thistlethwaite, Josh Maranesi, Kane Rowe and Nick Astin, while Dale Russell, Daniel Frew, Jordan Haddow and Brad Bailey did all they could for the Tigers – who suffered their first Shoalhaven Football loss of 2018.
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