DAD STILL MY HERO
BARRY Hall might not have walked away with a grand final medal but he’s still a winner in his family’s eyes.
Wife Lauren and his baby boy Miller were on hand to cheer up the AFL great after Hall and his Labrador Tigers teammates were defeated in the QAFL grand final by Palm Beach on Saturday.
The former Sydney Swans premiership spearhead was a massive drawcard for the season decider with thousands flocking to Wally Fankhauser Reserve at Southport.
PALM Beach-Currumbin have been responsible for an amazing fall from grace by Labrador by dismantling the once powerful Tiger machine in the QAFL grand final.
At one stage unbeaten in 27 games – a run stretching back to early last season – Labrador surrendered their premiership title as a rampant PBC line-up took the big decider by 14.20 (104) to 7.9 (51) at Wally Fankhauser Reserve.
So complete was the PBC victory that they kept the Tigers goalless in the first half – coming after they restricted the premiers to only 3.3 in the second semi-final a fortnight previous. For Labrador to score only three goals in six quarters of football emphasised either that the Lions improved remarkably over the latter stages of the year or that the Tigers simply lost their way big time under the pressure of finals football.
“We were just totally outplayed,” Labrador coach Aaron Shattock said after his first grand final in charge of the Tigers.
“Full credit to Palmy, they were far, far too good – 30-odd scoring shots to not many says it all I guess. They never let us settle all day.”
It will now go into the history books that PBC have twice thwarted Labrador in their only two bids for flag hat-tricks. In 1995 PBC downed the Tigers after titles in 1993 and 1994 and now they have repeated the three-peat chase curse.
With confidence up after their semi-final effort, the Lions stamped their authority early on Saturday with an opening term of excellence that played a serious role in putting Labrador to bed.
Into a fairly strong wind, the Lions kicked 4.5 to 0.2 and when they backed that up with 2.4 to 0.3 in the second quarter it was all over bar the shouting.
When Shattock stationed Jake Goldsmith at full-for-
ward and moved Barry Hall to the pocket to start the third term, Labrador sparked momentarily with three quick goals – but that was it.
“We wasted a few chances and if you don’t take your chances against Labrador they can come back to bite you,” coach Chad Owens said.
“Yes, into the wind we were really good. We used the ball really smartly, we ran hard and we knew that was going to be our strength over them – we had to run.”
Owens rattled off any number of stars in an even Lions performance.
His list was headed by onballers Dylan Troutman, Joe Grant Medallist Jake Dignan, Jason Burge, captain Jesse Derrick and a raw 17-year-old Caleb Graham.
Labrador had few winners on the day.
Grogan Medallist Wayde Mills, tagger Jayden Gleeson and skipper Bryce Retzlaff were three exceptions in a side that lacked genuine leg speed.
Meanwhile, statistics nuts would have loved the final scoreline between Palm Beach-Currumbin and Labrador on Saturday.
Last year in Brisbane, Labrador downed the Lions by 15.12 (102) to 7.7 (49), a margin of 53 points. This time around PBC returned serve, winning by 14.20 (104) to 7.9 (51) – again a margin of 53 points.