Magical, fairy tale wins – we’ve all seen them countless times, across any number of sports.
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But Millthorpe’s stunning Orange District Football Association A Grade title win, completed in Saturday’s grand final at Jack Brabham Park, was something else entirely.
The Tigers came from stone-dead last after the opening six rounds of the competition – they hadn’t won a game at that point – to finish second after the regular season, then go on to win it all.
A 2-1 win over the similarly winless Waratahs Wildcats kick-started the side’s march to the finals in round seven, it was the first of 11 wins the Tigers secured in their final 12 games before the finals.
That resurgence was capped off in Saturday’s decider, the Tigers thumping Waratahs Old Boys 6-0 to seal the 2017 title in the most emphatic of fashions.
It’s Millthorpe’s first premiership since 2012, which was the end of a three-year reign, but considering the turnaround Tigers veteran Wes Roweth said this one was extra special.
“One of our guys missed the grand final because he’d booked an overseas holiday the poor bugger, assuming we’d have no chance of being there,” Roweth laughed.
“I don’t think anyone thought we’d get to the grand final, let alone win it and win it by so much. It was unbelievable really, we’d won a lot of our games with only 11 players as well.
“Picking up Nathan Davis (was a turning point in the season). He moved up front, a lot of guys had played out of position until then so letting them go back to where they should’ve been really helped.”
It was one-way traffic from start to finish on Saturday.
“We scored two really early goals, it was a cracking start,” Roweth explained.
“Old Boys had a few chances, they fought back into it, but in the second half we just went on with it.
“They’re a really good side, no one expected to win by that much.”
Tigers skipper Nic Smith scored a hat-trick, while Jono McCann and Davis also found the back of the net.
“Our goalkeeper, Matt Amies, scored from the penalty spot as well. It’s probably his first goal ever,” Roweth laughed.
“Nic does a lot of work behind the scenes for our club and he had a great season, so it’s great to see him get that kind of reward in a grand final.”
Despite Smith’s heroics, Tigers gun Jacob Evans was named man-of-the-match – a nod to just how well he played.
“He had a blinder, Jacob was very, very good,” Roweth said.
“Everyone had a blinder actually, that’s what really got us over the line I think.”
Old Boys goalkeeper Adam Brakenridge heaped praise on Millthorpe, but lamented the fact his side had picked a bad day to play its “worst game of the year”.
“Millthorpe were just the better team,” he said.
“We picked a bad day to play our worst game of the year, but Millthorpe started so strongly and after that we had the chase the game hard. It didn’t work out, but congratulations to them.”
- MILLTHORPE TIGERS 6 (Nic Smith 3, Nathan Davis, Jono McCann, Matt Amies) def WARATAHS OLD BOYS 0
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
