Grand final day gets underway with a bumper contest for the under 19 premiership with Bentleigh Red taking on Dingley for the ultimate prize. Throughout the season we have seen those early starts for the players across the ten competing teams all come down to a final two hours between glory or just falling short.
For this Bentleigh side, their imposing record of 14-1 across the home and away season will put them into good stead for today’s grand final contest. While for the Dingoes they finished the home and away season in third position with a record of 14-4.
Both of these sides right from senior level down to the under 19’s we see today are awfully good at developing their younger players and preparing them for senior footy in the coming years, a trend we are starting to see develop nicely at Bentleigh in their seniors with the juniors sprouting through and have a good impact.
The path to today’s grand final for both sides looked like this, for Bentleigh they are coming off a weeks rest after defeating their opponent in a second semi final a couple of weeks ago to come straight through to the grand final. Led by a 6 goal combined effort from Harry Richards & Connor Brown, they will be chomping at the bit for more goals today with the assistance of Fletcher Newton, Bailey Fitzsimon & Bodhi Marsh moving the footy.
For Dingley they come into today’s grand final after a preliminary final win over the top of Cheltenham to the tune of 60 points, with Jack Lalor & Reef White kicking two each last Saturday morning and will look to boot more between them to help the Dingoes cause. 2023 Sparrow Medallist Jordan Letts & Mitch Cook will look to move the footy a lot for them as well.
Coming into today’s grand final as well, the Dees are leading the season series 3-0 with wins in round 9, 18 & the second semi final. With an imposing record, the Dees will be in tip top shape to win this grand final and it’s awfully hard to go past them, while for the Dingoes perhaps not having the week off and being in winning form is a handy recipe to have heading into the match.
