THE SANDRINGHAM Dragons and Dandenong Stingrays will contest the 2022 NAB League Boys Grand Final under lights on Friday September 16 at IKON Park at 5:10pm.
The Dragons and Stingrays confirmed their spots in the first NAB League Boys decider since 2019 with preliminary final victories at Port Melbourne’s ETU Stadium on Saturday.
In the first of the double-header preliminary finals, Dandenong held on over a fast-finishing Tasmania Devils in a thriller by just a point, with a Stingrays mark on the defensive goal line with 20 seconds to play securing the win.
In the second match, Sandringham stamped their authority on the contest against Gippsland Power in the second and third quarters to lead by 44 points at the final change, before winning comfortably by 34 points.
Click here to view the full NAB League Boys preliminary final results, including goal kickers and best players. Full player stats and match replays are available at the NAB League app.
The 2022 NAB League Boys Grand Final will feature a number of young stars in contention for the NAB AFL Draft later this year. Dragons captain and top midfield prospect Will Ashcroft has produced a stellar season and has committed to the Brisbane Lions under the father-son rule.
Also part of the Grand Final squads will be Ashcroft’s 2022 NAB AFL Academy and Victoria Metro teammate Harry Sheezel, while the Stingrays also have a pair of 2022 NAB AFL Academy players in Mitch Szybkowski and Henry Hustwaite, both Victoria Country representatives, as well as Morrish Medal winner Taj Campbell-Farrell.
Other players to watch include Dragons who have worn the Victoria Metro guernsey in the NAB AFL Championships Boys U18 this season - Cameron Mackenzie, Charlie Clarke, Olli Hotton, Mitchell Rowe and Ben Hempel, while the Stingrays will be hoping Victoria Country players Jaxon Binns and Finn Emile-Brennan help to get them over the line.
The Dragons will be out to claim the program’s fourth NAB League Boys premiership, the last of which came in 2016. The others came in 1999 and 2011.
The Stingrays won their only NAB League Boys title in 2018. They will be looking to go one better this year than their girls program, who lost a thrilling 2022 NAB League Girls Grand Final to the Western Jets by six points in April.
The last NAB League Boys premiership was won by the Matt Rowell-led Oakleigh Chargers in 2019. No premierships were awarded in 2020 or 2021 because of the COVID pandemic.
2022 NAB LEAGUE BOYS GRAND FINAL
Dandenong Stingrays v Sandringham Dragons
Friday September 16, 5:10pm AEST
IKON Park
Entry to the Grand Final is free and the match will be streamed live and free via AFL.com.au, the AFL Live Official App and the NAB League app.
Celebrating 30 years of the NAB League
This year the AFL is celebrating the 30-year history of the competition which has produced more AFL and AFLW players than any other in recent decades, the NAB League (formerly TAC Cup).
The boys competition was first played in 1992 as the Victorian State Football League (VSFL) Under 18s with six teams and was sponsored by the TAC up until 2018, before NAB took over naming rights. The girls competition was introduced in 2017.