Mercury Cup Grand Final Saturday 15th September at UTAS Stadium.
Launceston Vs. North Launceston, 9:45am.
Launceston’s Mercury Cup side completed a perfect season with a 34 point win over local rivals North Launceston in the grand final at UTAS Stadium. A scrappy and low scoring affair due to the wind and rain, Launceston took the advantage with the breeze in the first quarter, kicking three goals to one, before adding two unanswered goals against the wind in the second quarter. With the Bombers having kicked a paltry 8 goals total across the three previous meetings between the two sides this season, they never looked likely to haul in the Blues in the second half.
Jacob Boyd took home the medal for best afield after his 20 disposal, 9 mark, 4 tackle, and one goal effort. He took four more marks than any other Launceston player on a day when they were tough to take in the wet and plenty were dropped. Anthony Liberatore was the leading ball winner for the Blues, collecting 26 disposals, and also had an equal team high 8 tackles. Boyd and Liberatore were the only two Launceston players to collect 20+ touches, with clean possessions hard to come by. Credit to both for managing to match their usual outputs in tough conditions.
One player who changed up his play style a bit on the day was Alec Wright, who had 13 disposals and an equal team high 8 tackles as he once again lead the water tight Launceston defence brilliantly alongside skipper Bayley Neil and the more experienced defenders like Cam Downie and Zac Oldenhof (11 disposals each), while the rest of the largely inexperienced backline all made excellent contributions as well with the Bombers owning the territorial battle for large chunks of the game. It was an outstanding effort to keep them to just the two goals.
Blair Rubock was the only multiple goal kicker on the ground with two goals to go with his 14 disposals. Jake Nunn collected 17 disposals and 11 hit outs, working well in tandem with Sam Bruinewoud (5 disposals, 28 hit outs, and 4 tackles) and Ethan Conway (12 disposals, 5 marks, 9 hit outs, and a goal) in the ruck. Other major ball winners for the Blues included Tyson Miller with 13 disposals and a goal, James Gillow with 12 disposals and 7 tackles, and Jack Donnellan, Grant Holt and Casey Brown who all also collected a dozen disposals each.
So season over now, and what an extraordinary season it was for Oli Cook’s charges. They went through the entire season undefeated, with their lowest margin of victory being in the 24 point win in round 9 against wooden spooners North Hobart of all teams. The future is looking bright for the Launceston Football Club, with the under 18s also taking out the premiership this season. Plenty to look forward to for the Blues in 2019 and beyond.
Launceston 7.7.49
North Launceston 2.3.15
Launceston goals: Rubock 2, J. Boyd, Millucci, Gee, Miller, Conway
Launceston best: J. Boyd, Donnellan, Downie, Wright, Oldenhof, Bruinewoud
By Josh Giblin