The Narooma Redbacks completed their undefeated season at Sunday’s Eurobodalla Football Association grand final, beating the Broulee Stingrays 2-1 in a classic grand final at Dalmeny Oval.
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The match went to penalties, where grand-final hero Simon Mackie made two saves and scored the winning penalty to seal the premiership.
The match started at a quick pace, as the Redbacks scored inside the first 10 minutes to take an early lead.
They continued pressing the matter, and narrowly missed out on a second goal a number of times inside the first half an hour.
The Stringrays pushed back after the half-hour mark, and eventually got their reward with a penalty in the shades of half time.
A Broulee player was taken down in the box during a corner kick, and referee Scott Fagerlund instantly pointed to the spot.
Broulee centreback Dane Skou converted the penalty to make the score 1-1 at half time.
The second half was a tale of two sides, as Broulee looked better on the ball, but Narooma looked more dangerous on the counter attack.
The Stingrays almost broke through 20 minutes from full time, as Redbacks keeper Mackie failed to defuse a ball into the penalty area.
The Stingrays had a number of chances to score the winner, but the Redbacks cleared the ball off the line every time to maintain the draw.
An extra 30 minutes couldn’t separate the two sides, so the match went to a penalty shootout.
Broulee got the upper hand with the first save of the shootout, but they tripped up on their fifth penalty as Mackie kept the Redbacks alive.
Mackie then made another save on the eighth penalty, and stepped up to score the winning penalty in front of a strong Narooma crowd.
In other matches, Bodalla beat Clyde United 2-1 in the All-Age Ladies’ final. Bodalla scored their first girl very early in the match, and then sealed it with the winner 15 minutes from time.
Clyde United scored a consolation goal from the penalty spot, but never looked 100 per cent with the ball.
Moruya Blue upset the Narooma Redbacks 4-3 in the Youth Boys’ final, their second-straight victory over the minor premiers.
The two sides were very close all day, and the sides went to the half-time break tied at two after a goalkeeping error from the Redbacks’ keeper.
Narooma scored first in the second half to take a 3-2 lead, but a pair of goals to Moruya made sure of the title.
Moruya had another win over Narooma in the Youth Girls’ final, as the Swans beat the Redbacks 2-1.
The Swans finished the regular season as minor premiers, and beat Narooma twice in the finals series to win a well-deserved premiership.
In the under 11/12s, Clyde United beat Bodalla 5-2 in the division two final, while Moruya beat Batemans Bay 3-1 in division one.
Check out some of our best photos from the day in the gallery below.