2016 PRELIMINARY FINAL V OLD SCOTCH
| Teams | 1st Q. | 2nd Q. | 3rd Q. | 4th Q. |
| Beaumaris | 4.2:26 | 9.5:59 | 12.7:79 | 16.13:109 |
| Old Scotch | 5.1:31 | 6.2:38 | 9.2:56 | 12.3:75 |
| Goalkickers : Danial Gribbin 4, Stephen Milne 3, Adam Schneider 2, Will Edmonds 2, Matt Petering 2, Josh Ward 1, Rob Cathcart 1, Liam Hiscock 1. | ||||
| No | Player | No | Player | No | Player | No | Player |
| 2 | Robert Cathcart | 3 | Matt Petering | 7 | Tom Dean | 8 | Josh Ward |
| 12 | Scott Gower | 13 | Will Murton | 14 | Adam Schneider | 15 | Lachlan Boyd |
| 16 | Sam McBain | 17 | Anthony Carroll | 18 | Will Edmonds | 19 | Joel Di Natale |
| 22 | Steven Scott | 23 | Ben McLean | 25 | Daniel Gribbin | 28 | Jack Gabron-Uhe |
| 29 | Tim Cummings | 33 | Stephen Milne | 35 | Luke Globan | 37 | Liam Hiscock |
| 45 | Drew Kelly | 55 | Will Gillespie |
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"If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?"
Joe Namath (Legendary American Football Quarterback).
Sometimes the path to a Grand Final can be best planned by not having a week off. The continuity of playing helps a side keep their momentum or even allows a side to play back into form. Twice during this season we came back from byes and lost the next two games. Losing to St Bedes in the Second Semi Final meant we found ourselves in a knockout Preliminary Final against our fellow Premier A team from last season, Old Scotch. One of us was going to have to spend another season in Premier B having to travel to the 'Snakepit' in Essendon in one direction, and, as it turned out, down to the Peninsula Old Boys at Mt.Eliza in the other.
On another near perfect day for football we travelled to Sportscover Arena rather than Trevor Barker Oval in what may have been our last game for the season. To say it didn't start that well would certainly be an understatement. Old Scotch had the perfect start, four goals in just over ten minutes and it was looking like 'how far' Old Scotch. But, because of a few losses in the latter part of the season, it was possible that the fighting spirit of this Beaumaris team had been forgotten. There were several times early in the season when we'd been headed in a game only to fight back and take home the points. That spirit was about to be shown again in a big way. Our first goal came just over 14 minutes into the quarter after a ruck infringement gave the ball to Max Van Den Broak (#19) at half back, he tried to switch the play to Julian Beard (#63) who played on and had his kick smothered by Milne who recovered quickly and produced a kick that we have all seen him do many times at AFL level as it bounced through our first goal for the day. Unfortunately Old Scotch responded a couple of minutes later to kick their fifth and restore the four goal advantage. But the Sharks were starting to wake from the slumber of the past few weeks. Two quick goals to Petering and Milne in just over two minutes brought us right back in the game. At this point I'm pretty sure a number of our supporters were starting to breath a little easier. A goal to Schneider at the 24 minute mark meant it was 'game on'. Petering was being creative with his handball, Edmonds was being particularly good with 8 effective disposals while Boyd was causing Old Scotch problems with his 4 marks and 6 disposals for the quarter. We went to the first break trailing 5-1-31 to 4-2-26 but ready and primed for the next quarter. Notably, the free kick count for the first quarter was 12 to 1. Not in our favour.
The first quarter was marred by two serious injuries, the first to Rob Cathcart six minutes into the quarter where he was slightly concussed and suffered a shoulder injury and the second to Steven Scott less than a minute later when he was tackled and carried over the boundary line and driven into the ground to suffer a season ending knee injury.
The second quarter didn't start the way we would have liked with Old Scotch scoring the first goal about six minutes into the quarter. Cathcart was strapped up and back on the ground and he received an 'off the ball' free kick on the wing. He quickly passed to Milne who handballed on to Kelly. Kelly put a perfectly weighted kick into the forward line for Gribbin to mark and then kick truly. Just over a minute later Old Scotch played on from a behind and as a result of pressure from Boyd their kick was marked by Edmonds who then kicked his first. We now led the game by 3 points. Seven minutes later Petering kicked his second goal from the 45 metre line and we taking control of the game. Three minutes later Cathcart kicked a goal and from that goal's centre ball up Cumming found Cathcart who kicked to Kelly who managed to slip a tackle and handball to Ward. Ward put through another and our lead was now out to 21 points. Cathcart was amazing. He was playing with only one good shoulder and had 5 effective kicks for the quarter, Boyd had 7 more disposals and took 4 marks. Globan was also prolific with 8 disposals and 4 four marks off the wing. At half time we were leading 9-5-59 to 6-2-38.
The third quarter started a bit like the first quarter with Old Scotch kicking the first three goals of the quarter. They kicked their third goal at the 17 minute mark of the quarter and we had only managed a solitary behind. The margin has been cut to 4 points but that fighting spirit was about to surface again. At the 23 minute mark Hiscock drifted down from the backline and kicked our first for the quarter, within 50 seconds Milne had his third for the day. Just before the quarter ended a miskick by Old Scotch ended up with Petering who handballed to Dean. The Captain spotted up Schneider who in turn handballed to Edmonds who finished the quarter off with his second goal. The lead was back out to 23 points. Major ball winners for the quarter were Petering with 12 disposals, Ward and Di Natale with 8 each. We turned for home leading 12-7-79 to 9-2-56.
The last quarter started and Gribbin was dominating up forward. He kicked the first two goals in just over 5 minutes before Old Scotch were able to answer with their first. A couple minutes later Schneider kicked his second for the day before Matthew Seed (#20) kicked two in as many minutes for Old Scotch. But the game was 'done and dusted' and Gribbin made sure of it with his third for the quarter at the 28 minute mark. Gribbin, Petering and Edmonds all finished with 8 disposals for the quarter. The final score was 16-13-109 to 12-3-75 with, incidentally, a free kick count of 15 to 39. Not in our favour.
Importantly, the character filled win propels us back up into Premier A for next season and the vanquished Old Scotch will have taken their place in the 'Mad Monday' celebrations. More importantly, if we sit back and reflect on what has happened so far this season; there have been 23 games of regular football (counting the practice games), 40 different players who have played at least one game in the Senior team, 3 have played every game (Cathcart, Ward and McLean), 4 have missed only one game (Dean, Edmonds, Globan and Gillespie). We have kicked the ball 4223 times, handballed 2695 times and marked the ball 1928 times. There have been 392 free kicks paid to us and 549 free kicks given away. We have scored 280 goals and 258 behinds and now it comes down to one final game in which all those numbers count for nothing. This is the one everyone loves to be involved in. The last game of the season. For us it is twice as good because our Seniors and Reserves play in Grand Finals this coming Saturday.
Don't you just love the footy.
Go sharks.