Photo: Bill Cutten.
The 2025 EDFA grand finals drew record crowds to Newtown Oval last Saturday which concluded in a high voltage League match that delivered quality entertainment for the entire duration.
Esperance Football Club President Michael Harding said he was pleased with the performance of his team, who all showed a persistent effort throughout the game.
Initially, Gibson “burst out the blocks,” Mr Harding said, “they were three goals to one up, at one stage.”
Brayden Wood, Cooper Blunt and Ben Staunton miss the ball. Photo: Bill Cutten.
“At the back half of the first quarter, our boys sort of got some control back and then we reasonably controlled the rest of the game.
“I thought it was a fantastic game football.”
“Gibson got a fair bit of ball forward, but I thought our backline stood up really, really well.
He said that overall, it had been “a bit of an arm wrestle.”
“But, we just seemed to have probably around a three-goal lead, most of the day after that.”
Gibson got within two and a half goals of the lead about halfway through the last quarter, “but then our boys kicked a couple,” he said.
He described the match as “a really good, hard game of footy,” typical of the highly skilled performances both clubs have produced when they have played each other over the last few years.
Photo: EDFA Facebook.
He felt the strongest player for the day was Sam Franzone (five goals), who won the Bridge Family Medal for the best player on the ground having had 13 shots on goal, “quite an amazing stat for a grand final,” he said.
“Brendon White in the midfield was just really good all day,” he said.
“I thought our backline with Joe Franzone, Chris Harding and Liam Baines was really good but… I just thought all of our team, everyone, just played really good team footy and everyone bobbed up when they needed to.”
He said he thought that it was a great team effort and that Gibson also delivered a solid game and that “Esperance were just a little bit better on the day.”
“We probably just finished our work a bit better and when you got a key forward, who kicks five goals, that’s also a very big help,” he said.
“I’d really like to give credit to the Newtown-Condingup Footy Club for the way the day was run.“I thought the day ran beautifully, and the oval was in great knick, they did a great job.”
