ONE-HUNDRED-AND-SIXTY-THREE days after the first home-and-away match of the Essendon Ford Division 1 season was played on Good Friday, the thrill and excitement of Grand Final footy returns this weekend.
At 2:20pm today, a brand new, bright red EDFL-branded Sherrin will be bounced at Windy Hill with the Airport West and Tullamarine football clubs to do battle to determine the premier for this year.
Incredibly, this Saturday will be the third occasion these two clubs have met in the past four weeks, as they played in the final home-and-away round as well the second semi final two weeks ago.
In Round 9, Tullamarine was far too strong, winning by 70 points at Leo Dineen Reserve.
However, in Round 18 at home, Airport West won by 23 points and backed that up with a 56-point victory in the second semi at Greenvale a week later.
A trivia fact from this week’s grand final is that the last time each of these Essendon Ford Division 1 clubs won the premiership in this division, they defeated West Coburg.
Airport West was successful in 2012, kicking 22 goals and 22 behinds to win by 69 points, and Tullamarine beat West Coburg by 25 points in 2003.
The Division 1 Reserves Grand Final will feature Airport West against Taylors Lakes.
Analysis of results from 2018 would have Airport West as the clear favourite.
They finished the home-and-away season on top of the ladder with only two losses and a percentage of 270, and comfortably won the second semi by 29 points.
However, Taylors Lakes is looking to continue an amazing recent run in grand finals, having been the Division 1 Reserves premier for each of the past four years.
What makes their performance even more impressive is that only once in those four years did the Lions finish the home-and-away season on top of the ladder, and the biggest winning margin in any of the four grand final matches was 14 points, including two four-point wins.
This will be an intriguing battle.
The AGA Apprenticeships Plus Under 19.5 Grand Final will see Westmeadows as the home team facing East Keilor.
All indicators point to a close game as they finished the home-and-away season with a similar win-loss ratio, defeated each other during the home-and-away season, and have had very strong wins in their lead up finals matches.
While the Essendon Ford Division 1 Grand Final is the feature senior match this weekend, preliminary finals between Keilor and Strathmore in Strathmore Community Bank Premier Division and the Northern Saints and East Sunbury in Strathmore Community Bank Division 2 are sure to attract big following and great interest on who qualifies for the grand final.
Good luck for the weekend.
