'Immense pride'; Late Hanwood run prevents overtime, earns them Pascoe Cup premiership

Coach Jason Bertacco was elated after the game, saying the win was well deserved after a massive season for his side.

"I'm feeling immense pride, we had heart break last year, but we didn't try and dwell on it, there was only four boys from last year's squad," he said.

"It was a club effort, we had 27 new players across the board, so to get all three men's grades in, is an immensely proud moment for the club, but to take home the first grade premiership, there's nothing better."

It took a while to get past the grand final day nerves, but a 28^th minute goal lifted the game, and the atmosphere, at the 2023 Pascoe Cup grand final.

Both Hanwood and Tolland defended heavily in the opening 25 minutes, but an out of nowhere run from Tolland finally got the score board ticking over.

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Attackers drew Hanwood keeper Cameron Darling out from the goal line, and it wasn't the prettiest, but Jacob Ochieng dribbled the ball over the line to put Tolland 1-0 ahead.

It remained a relatively quiet game until the 62^nd minute, when Hanwood's Andrew Gamble sliced the ball perfectly past Tolland keeper Eli Abbas to even out the score.

With scores tied 1-1, both teams looked good to score several times, with some unlucky kicks and outstanding goal keeping holding the score steady.

"Once it got to 1-1, we thought, we're going to go on with this," Bertacco said.

"We kind of thought extra time was coming, but we also knew the boys had the running in their legs.

"We've done a lot of work, we've had coaches come in to really personal train the boys and run them hard, so we knew this back end they'd keep going."

As the minutes drew down and the crowd could feel extra time on the horizon, the Hanwood chant was ignited and Tolland were forcing the ball towards goal with every chance they had.

With four minutes left in regular time, a poor tackle on Charlton Zahra just outside the box had referee Catherine Nash pull her red, but after consultation with the lines referee, not even a yellow was given.

Lining up the free kick, which could have secured the Wolves the win, too much power behind the kick sent it sailing well over the crossbar.

But in the dying minutes of regular time, eventual best on ground player Christopher Zappala found the back of the net and for the first time all day, Hanwood found themselves in the lead.

A wild eruption from the crowd and every player on the field flooded to Zappala, knowing their boy had won it for them.

A time check from Darling and the boys in blue were screaming down field, spreading the message to just hold on, and the noise from the crowd continued to grow.

Bertacco said his club has the best supporters in the league and there was no surprise they had such a huge crowd make the drive to Wagga for the games.

"They're always behind us, they're at home games, they come to as may away games as possible, so we always know we've got people there supporting us," he said.

"The Hanwood family, it just sticks together."

But they still weren't done, and Zappala works a loose ball through two defenders to sweeten the deal 3-1.

Time ticking down, the Hanwood strong start the chant again, and with one final whistle from Nash, their years-long first grade grand final curse has broken.

Despite not taking the lead until so late in the second half, Bertacco said he always knew his side had it in them.

In a rebuilding season, he said the team wanted to win it for themselves, and to prove to others they shouldn't be underestimated.

"Our average in first grade, is just on 20, we bumped up our 17 year olds to first grade, we threw them in the deep end a bit," he said.

"We were lucky to get Cameron [Darling] and Nick [Kennedy] who are here to help us out from overseas, so it's great to have that experience, but the young ones boys pretty much led from the front this year.

"A lot of people wanted to see us go down, but we had a lot of people we wanted to prove wrong, and we wanted to do it for ourselves, and our Hanwood family."

Full time

Hanwood 3 (C Zappala 2, A Gamble) d Tolland 1 (J Ochieng) in the Pascoe Cup grand final at Equex Centre on Sunday evening.

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