Eltham 17 d Surrey Park 7 - Grand Final

It was just another day at the office for Eltham's State League team at Caulfield Park on Saturday where they soundly defeated Surrey Park in their Grand Final match. Winning in every position they recorded an outstanding 17 - 7 victory, where in the first quarter the defence did not allow Surrey's attack to trouble the scorers. By half time the large crowd of Lacrosse spectators sensed the opposition had nothing to trouble the reining premiers. In the second half, Eltham's attack and midfield players Wayde Kendall, Nathan and Daniel Stiglich, Darren Nicholas, Tim Fry, Richard Newall, Carl and Scott Menze and Ben Teasdale continued their domination scoring 10 goals to Surrey's 3. At the other end of the field there was hardly a penetration into Eltham's solid wall off star defensive players. Goalie Steve Mackey played his usual tight game and long pole defenders Terry Sparks, Keith Nyberg, Ben Fleming, Daniel Hall and Lachlan Ross hardly worked up a sweat. And of course speedy centreman Cale Brooks dominated the face-offs which is so crucial in the game of Lacrosse. Head Coach was glowing in his praise of this team which has now won four Premierships in succession.

Eltham 15 d Moreland 12 - Grand Final

It was not the same story on an adjacent field when Eltham's Division 1 team took on Moreland. In what appeared to start off as a typical close matched affair giving a three all score line at quarter time, altered and by half time the team was in disarray. Eltham were unable to score in the second quarter though not for lack of shots at goal. Problem was that they were all missing by large margins or being shot directly into Moreland's goalie's net. The general consensus around the ground was the team would have been much further behind had it not been for the fighting qualities of the defence. Spectators had lost count of the number of saves goalie Lance Kaufman had made, and in front of him defenders Glen Esler, Scott Schenk, Adam Treloar and Daniel Juchnevicius worked tirelessly in the warm conditions. In addition errors were creeping into Eltham's game and penalties mounting up. An extraordinary penalty resulted when midfielder Ross Carter chasing an opposition player was too close to the boundary line and unable to change his momentum resulted in him colliding with the Moreland coach. After the game coach Steven Colautti said he had been trying some different plays and line-ups in the first half, however it was evident in the third quarter when attack and mid-field players adopted their usual positions that things were starting to work for Eltham. Attack player Andrew Millar began to find players cutting at the right time and Bradley Kendall gave off three assists resulting in goals. Scott Thanas and Luke Sevior began to dominate at the centre draws. Mid-fielders Dale Norman, Jai Arambatzis, Tyson Brooks and Ross Carter started to get ground balls and were finding the sticks of attack players. In a three minute flurry Eltham scored goals from the sticks of Arambatzis, Wade Hammond and Jimmy Buchanan and finished the quarter only four goals down. "When the going gets tough the tough get going," and that was what Eltham did. The team was back into it's groove - the defence kept Moreland goalless in the last term with strong, tough lacrosse. At the other end of the field the balls were now finding the back of the cage with goals to Andrew Millar and Wade Hammond. With only 90 seconds left on the clock Buchanan scored his second goal for the quarter resulting in a draw at full time. Two tense five minute overtime periods saw the true Eltham spirit rise to the occasion - two goals to Ben Hammond and singles to Millar and Buchanan were enough to seal a 15 - 12 goal victory. The team had barely finished singing the club song and being doused with the traditional Kendall champagne when the strains were taken up by the State League team who recorded their outstanding victory a few moments later.