This season our Year 10 side finished fourth on the ladder, but were the only team in the competition to beat Belmont/Redcliffe in the home and away series. Belmont/Redcliffe finished top of the table with the result being we had to play them in the 1st qualifying final.

In what was a close game played at their home ground, South Perth were again victorious by 4 points. This resulted in South Perth going straight through to the preliminary final were we would play Kenwick, who we had drawn with in our only other meeting in the regular season. Our boys managed to hold on during the Preliminary final and win that game by 8 points with a very late goal in the last minute of the game sealing our win.

Belmont/Redcliffe also managed to win their remaining finals matches, though in a much more comfortable fashion which set the stage for an intriguing and close grand final confrontation between the two teams.

Our season record at this stage was 2 wins against Belmont/Redcliffe in the last 3 games, with the last two of these games decided by less than a goal.

Our boys were certainly up and about on Grand Final day and all players appeared extremely focused for the game.

Belmont/Redcliffe won the toss and decided to kick with what appeared to be a 3 to 4 goal wind. Our boys efforts in the 1st quarter showed everyone there that we were there to play. Both teams managed to kick 2 goals each in this first quarter and the field umpires made their presence felt by clamping down hard on any back chat or unsightly language, and this stance continuing for the whole game.

Our boys discipline and focus to play football was the difference between the teams. During the second quarter our opposition came out hard, however we weathered this initial onslaught and replied by kicking 6 unanswered goals in the quarter.

This effort we displayed in the second quarter crushed our opposition who failed to settle after the long break, while the discipline our boys displayed on and off the field allowed us to comfortably hold the opposition at bay and in the end we ran out 41 point winners.

Unfortunate scenes marred the end of the game, with both players and spectators from Belmont/Redcliffe remonstrating with the umpires and also with district officials, which meant our boys had to curb their celebrations for the win. However, they did manage to belt out a very loud rendition of our club song.

Go the Stingrays!!