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BENDIGO (AP).
It
took 90 matches, but the Hulkamaniacs finally reached the Division 2
Men's Grand Final. Unfortunately however, it was not the result
that the Hulkamaniacs wanted, going down to newfound rivals the Mustangs
by a margin of 22 points.
It was another sluggish start for the top placed Hulkamaniacs, who
appeared tentative and slow out of the blocks. The Mustangs came
out strong, putting scores on the board, building an early and decisive
advantage before the Hulkamaniacs knew what had hit them.
By
the 10-minute mark of the opening half, it was fastly becoming a dire
situation for the Hulkamaniacs - their only contribution to the
scoreboard being a bunch of questionable foul calls against them.
Meanwhile, the Mustangs were feeling confident and taking their chances, with a
lead of almost 10 points and a grip on the contest.
Finally,
more than 10 minutes into the grand final - Phil S, coming off a
brilliant first final against the Dwarfz, got the Hulkamaniacs first
score on the board - as the handful of Hulkamaniacs supporters urged
the team on from the sidelines, hoping for bigger and better things in
the remaining 30 minutes of the match.
The
Hulkamaniacs were able to slow down the momentum of the Mustangs, but
failed to take their opportunities on the offensive end - as the
shots were just not dropping as regularly as they were throughout their extraordinary
regular season, and last weeks first final.
Luke scored on a 3-point field goal to keep the Hulkamaniacs within
striking distance of their opponents approaching the half - but still
lagged behind by a margin in excess of 10 points. The first half
scoring was capped off by 2004-05 leading scorer Phil C, hitting his
first basket of the match to close out the scoring for the half - with
a score line of 20-7 in the Mustangs favour.
The
Hulkamaniacs could not have been overly disappointed with the half-time
score line, taking into account the first 10 minutes which was well
below par compared to their lofty 2004-05 standards. An issue to arise
from the match was the standard of officiating throughout - which
seemed to be consistently in the Mustangs favour, causing a great
amount of anguish for Hulkamaniacs players and supporters alike.
Phil C started the second half in fine style, scoring 3 points in the
opening minutes, and suddenly the Hulkamaniacs looked fluent and a
chance to revive the much-anticipated grand final match-up. Beau
also got into the action with a field goal of his own shortly after,
keeping their chances alive.
However it didn't get better from this point on - with the Mustangs
again able to seize control of the contest, courtesy of some more
curious decisions from the officials. As anticipated, it was a
heated match throughout - with Adam amongst the thick of it and also on
the receiving end from the officials, racking up 5 fouls in quick
succession in limited minutes - a clear result of some very poor
decisions made in both the first and second half.
In fact, the Hulkamaniacs finished the game with in excess of 25 fouls
called against them - twice as many as their opponents
(13) on the night. This alone was one of the talking points to emerge from the
grand final.
Despite the afore-mentioned solid start to the second half, once the
Mustangs regained control the game was well within their keeping.
Of much concern, was that there were some spiteful incidents that were (not surprisingly) missed by
the officials.
Some
further second half field goals were scored by Murray, Beau and Phil S
- but the contribution was down across the board, and simply not enough
firepower turned up to play on the night. For the first time in a
long time, the Hulkamaniacs seemed content to launch from the outside,
instead of looking inside first, with Phil C being isolated and double
teamed out of the contest. When the Hulkamaniacs did venture
inside, their shots simply did not fall.
The final score in an overall disappointing grand final result for the Hulkamaniacs was 43 to 21.
Leading scorers for the Hulkamaniacs were Phil C with 7, Beau, Luke and Phil S each with 4 and Murray with 2 points.
The
Hulkamaniacs will have learnt the necessary lessons from the match,
and will be better prepared next time around. Season 2004-05 will
go down in the books as the Hulkamaniacs most successful ever, with the
team only letting itself down at the very last hurdle.
A record 12 wins and an emphatic finals victory against the Dwarfz are
positive steps towards where the Hulkamaniacs want to travel.
One feels that the Hulkamaniacs will be hell-bent on going the next
step in the Winter Season 2005 - which commences April 20th, 2005.
Congratulations to Phil C for taking out both of the main Hulkamaniacs
awards for the Summer Season 2004/05. Phil C won his third
consecutive MVP award convincingly in the end ahead of Beau (75.0 MVP
points compared to Beau's 56.0), whilst also for the third consecutive
season, Phil C has finished the season the leading scorer.
All the usual suspects are expected back in action for '05, and as
usual, the
Hulkamaniacs website is the only place to find out all the "must-have"
Hulkamaniacs information - match summaries, player statistics as well
as team and individual records - and it'll all be back in 2005.
Thanks for reading once again - see you next season!
Final 2004-05 MVP Standings: Phil C (75.0), Beau (56.0), Murray (40.0), Luke (35.5), Ross (35.0), Adam (28.0), Jayson (19.5), Phil S (14.0).
- Luke
Last weeks Hulkamaniacs Poll results:
Q: Will the Hulkamaniacs win the 2004-05 Division 2 title?
A: Yes (5 votes), No (0 votes). | 