BFL grand final: Darley’s devilish day out

From start to finish, Darley utterly dominated North Ballarat City and once it finally managed to convert goals, wrote its names in the history books.

The demons of 2008 have now been erased and the Devils can finally celebrate winning a Ballarat Football League premiership.

Woeful inaccuracy from Darley in the first half kept the contest alive, but in reality North City barely gave a yelp. 

The Devils simply outclassed the reigning premiers in every facet of the game, although at one stage it looked as though their inability to convert would prove costly.

Ryan Closter was the worst culprit, with just four behinds to his name at quarter time. However, Closter (and his Devils teammates) would eventually find his range to finish with 2.5.

Even though the scores were locked at quarter time, Darley had actually recorded nine scoring shots to four.

They stretched the margin to 21 points at half time and had astonishingly had 11 more scoring shots, with North still well in the game – at least on the scoreboard.

However, with 40 points between the two at the final change and North held goalless for two quarters, it was early party time for the boys in black and white.

Jake Edwards shut Derick Micallef out of the game in a brilliant defensive display, Steve Kennedy and Anthony Chiu completely owned the game in the third quarter and first-year Darley players Andrew Challis and Nathan Lyons played like hardened BFL veterans.

In fact, it was impossible to find a Devils player that wasn’t on top.

Dane Grenfell booted four goals and was a strong target down forward, while Matt Inglis snapped two quick majors when the game was in the balance during the second quarter.

For North City, it was hard to find winners across the ground.

Ryan Luke went down with an ACL injury in the first quarter, while Shaun Lyle also injured his knee.

Captain Simon McCartin was named their best, Lou Campana fought hard in the ruck and youngster Sam Willian was resilient all day.