The Bullants season ended on Saturday in cruel fashion with an 80 point defeat from VFL powerhouse Sandringham.

It was common knowledge before the game that Sandringham boasts the best VFL list in the competition, and that the Ants would be stretched in that area, but nobody could have predicted the manner in which the Bullants were blown off the park.

Callum Chambers got the Ants rolling with a fine goal from the 50m arc, but two horrid turnovers from Luke Livingston and Setanta O’hAilpin in defence handed the Zebras two cheap goals. The Zebras added the next five goals in a row, virtually ending the contest.

Ezra Poyas (5 goals) and Rod Crowe (4 goals) dominated up forward for Sandy’ thanks to some great delivery from their midfielders. The Ants on the other hand, struggled to achieve any cohesive movement through the middle, and thus found themselves turning the ball over constantly. Sandy’ made them pay almost every time.

The dangerous Daniel Harford was well held, and had no influence on proceedings. The Bullants talls: Deluca, McLaren, Morrell and Prendergast failed to exert their usual influence in the aerial contests; also not helping was the poor delivery up the ground, with the ball landing at Morrell and Prendergast’s feet on several occasions.

An all in brawl at quarter time failed to spark an Ants revival as Sandy’ did as they pleased, literally. I’m a neutral reporter, but I can honestly write that Sandringham received every free kick under the sun, while Bullants players were ridden in the back, tackled high and shepherded out of the contest without any free kick. This is not to say the umps were to blame – the Zebras were far too good, but the umpiring was questionable.

The Bullants may offer excuses in the form of injuries to Ross Young and Frankie Raso, but they wouldn’t have made much difference to the outcome. Perhaps the choice of leaving out big Blue Chris Bryan and youngster Jesse Smith was a mistake, as the Bullants were sorely missing someone to work tight in the clinches (Smith) and a big body and long kick to break the lines through the non-functional Bullants midfield (Bryan).

It has been another great year for the Bullants, and although they’ve now been eliminated in the past two Preliminary Finals, at least the problem is visible, and can be solved with more sound recruiting during summer to bulk up the Ants VFL list.

Final Scores:
Northern Bullants: 2.0.12 4.2.26 7.8.50 10.12 (72)
Sandringham: 7.1.43 11.7.73 15.10.100 23.14 (152)

Bullants
Goals: Morrell 2 Chambers 2 Sporn Davies Blackwell Teague O’hAilpin Crow
Best: Blackwell Houlihan Livingston Russell Chambers Sporn

Sandrigham:
Goals: Poyas 5 Crowe 4 Sautner 2 Gallagher 2 Dunn 2 Motlop 2 Johnson Ferguson Wheatley Liddell Godfrey Valenti
Best: Poyas Liddell Bizzell Nicholson Gallagher Crowe