THREE Hampden league footballers have helped Ballarat Clarendon College to its eighth Herald Sun Country Shield title in 10 years.
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South Warrnambool’s Hugh McCluggage, Koroit’s Willem Drew and Cobden's Jono Benallack played starring roles in the lopsided 12.18 (90) to 0.8 (8) defeat of Warrnambool’s Emmanuel College.
The win, at Colac’s Central Reserve on Wednesday, was in stark contrast to the 2014 decider between the schools, which Emmanuel won.
McCluggage earned the Danny Frawley Medal for best afield while Drew celebrated consecutive titles. The young Saint featured for Emmanuel last year as a year 10 student before moving to Ballarat Clarendon.
“It’s pretty weird playing against most of the boys you played with last year," Drew said. "It's a different feeling but they're both pretty good. I’m happy I got the opportunity to play in both."
Drew said Ballarat Clarendon wasted their opportunities early. But two goals before half-time gave them a lead they steadily increased.
“The second half we moved the ball better and used that spare option and we capitalised in front of goals, which was pretty handy,” he said.
The defender rated his own match as “not bad" but played up the efforts of McCluggage, a former Warrnambool College student.
“He was on the wing, he would’ve had 40 possessions, he played very well. He’s a classy act, good user of the ball,” he said.
Emmanuel coach Michael Clements also highlighted the period before half-time as match-defining.
“That put them in front at half-time and they thought they had the momentum. We couldn’t keep up with them after that, the genie was out of the bottle,” he said.
Captain Hugh Clancey, who started in attack but drifted back late, was their best player. Wingman Zac Urquhart, onballer Jayden Brooks, utility Brodyn Quarrell and key-position player Nathan Lucas were also effective.
Clements said he was proud of his players’ efforts, both on Wednesday and throughout the campaign.
They won a Warrnambool schools carnival and beat Colac’s Trinity College and Shepparton’s Wanganui Park en route to the decider.
“Any time you can get that far through a competition means you’ve been able to win four or five games in a row,” he said.
“If you can do that in a high-level competition, you’ve got to take a lot of satisfaction out of that.
“The group has showed how professional they are. We were quite relaxed in our warm-up, the instructions from the coach were pretty simple and the boys executed really well.”
