And then there were for 4

The home and away season has been run and done. 

We bid farewell to six William Buck Premier teams for 2022. Two of which, St Bernard’s and Old Trinity will make their way down to Premier B in 2023. 

For Old Melburnians, Old Scotch, Caulfield Grammarians and University Blues, a season in review to come, reflecting on what went right and what went wrong, and then, the next pre-season awaits. 

Before we delve into the weekend’s games, a congratulations to Simon Williams who coached his final game at Caulfield over the weekend. ‘Punchy’ steps down as coach of the Fields as a winner, not only over the weekend but also with 77 wins next to his name. The B-Grade Premiership in 2019, and a lifetime of memories. 

On the field, it was Caulfield who produced along with Old Scotch the tightest game of the final round. With little bearing on the ladder Old Scotch were inaccurate in front of goal finishing the day with 8.18.66 next to their name. It wasn’t quite the shootout we got between these sides earlier this year. 

Declan Rielly, the Caulfield ruckman was named best afield in his final senior game for the club. Oliver Lowe (3) the main man up forward. For the Cardinals, James Tarrant (3) and Tyler Sellers (3) proved to be the straightest in front of goal. 

The game that meant the most to the makeup of the top four started with plenty of intensity, ferocity and contested ball. Old Brighton and Old Melburnians couldn’t be split in the opening 25 minutes before Jackson Paine broke the deadlock for the first goal of the day. 

It was about the only smile OM’s could raise, after quarter time the Tonners pressed the clamps and squeezed Old Melburnians. The final margin of 79 points could have been a lot greater had they kicked straight. A second quarter saw them kick 2.11 with the ball rarely going into the OM’s attacking half. 

Anthony Zimmerman produced the magic of the day with four brilliant goals, two in the third term both from underneath the scoreboard running away from goal. Showing his class. Felix Flockhart took hold of the ruck in the absence of Nick De Steiger and while there was congratulations for Tom Paule in game 200, it’s Old Brighton who advanced to September.

It’s quite something to think after Friday night in Round 8. Old Melburnians handed Collegians an old-fashioned football lesson. The Lions had lost five in a row, and OM’s were second. 

10 weeks later, Collegians have locked in a double chance, they haven’t lost since and OM’s are not part of this year’s finals. 

The Lions outclassed Old Trinity in a show of strength at the Daley Oval. Dave Mirra finished the day with six. He had five, early on in the third quarter. The number one player in the competition is ready to explode this September.

What makes Collegians so dangerous is away from Mirra, Ed Greene (4), Oli Jackson (3) are also in fine-form. Kenny Ong, Sam Hibbins, Viv Michie and Freddie Sullivan accumulate disposals at will. 

We are set up for a replay of 2017 and 2018 this Saturday at Elsternwick Park. Can the Lions tame the ladder leaders and make it 11 wins in a row to book a spot in the Grand Final? Or will the kings of T H King show them how it’s done again? 

They might not have got out of second gear on the weekend St Kevins when they finished off St Bernard’s season at the snakepit. Earlier in the day the Snowdogs reserves knocked the St Kevin’s two’s out of the finals race to put themselves in but that’s all they had to smile about as SKOB did what they pleased. 

Josh Tynan, part of the St Kevin’s defensive wall stood out for the day. As did Michael Pisker, Will Coates and Luke Winter. They are primed for Saturday. Tom Jok will come back in, the man loves the Elsternwick Park wing and if he’s afforded the space to run, I’m tipping a Phil Manassa type moment from Jok streaming down the grandstand side to the raptures of the St Kevins faithful. 

Old Xaverians are locked into finals. They’ll compete from third to win this year’s title against Old Brighton on Sunday. They are the only team since the turn of the century to win the Premiership from outside the top two. They’ve done it twice. They know what it takes.

On Saturday, they claimed the inaugural Carmody Cup against University Blues. The Blues stayed with the red and black mafia for the first half before 10 goals to three after half-time signalled Xav’s intent on burying this contest. 

The X-man Xavier Richards finished with five majors, 12 games this year, 39 goals. An average of 3.25 goals per game. Charlie MacIsaac finished his day with two. 

Without Sam Grimley, it was Keiran Harper who made his return for the Blues and finished with two. They’ve had little to cheer about in the back half of the season. From an individual perspective, it is a congratulations to Sam Grimley who finishes this year as the William Buck Premier sharpshooter with 56 goals for the season. They do hold their spot in A-Grade for 2023 hellbent on writing the wrongs of 2022.