For the local hopes, the Picola and District Football Netball League has come to a close, with the last of Picola United and Mathoura’s lower grades sides suffering elimination at the weekend in preliminary finals.
Football
Picola United’s under-14s was the last football side standing, but was unable to book a grand final berth after suffering a convincing defeat at the hands of Tungamah.
It was the Blues who burst out of the blocks in the opening term and would have been bullish about their chances after taking a 2.3 (15) to 1.0 (6) lead into the first break.
Unfortunately for Picola, Tungamah got their defence in order coming out of the break, completely shutting down the Blues’ attacking raids for the remainder of the game.
The Bears piled on 10 more goals over the remaining quarters, while United was kept scoreless, the final score skewing heavily in Tungamah’s favour, 11.8 (74) to 2.3 (15).
Beau Griffiths and Cooper Wilson made the early goal contributions that sparked Picola’s strong start, but the team wasn’t able to go on with the momentum they created. Tungamah will play Berrigan in the under-14 final.
Netball
It was also heartbreak for the Blues’ under-15s, who fell a game short of a grand final place courtesy of Tungamah.
The Bears took the match 34-25, earning their own place in the decider against Deni Rovers next weekend.
In the under-13s, Mathoura’s grand final hopes were extinguished by Deni Rovers.
The Cutters had made an admirable run to the last four from seventh position but ran into the Deni freight train which has a 604 per cent regular-season percentage, going down 39-9.