BRENDAN Fevola gave the Yarrawonga faithful one last hurrah, but it wasn’t enough to keep his grand final dreams alive.
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Fevola booted six goals in his last game for the Pigeons before joining Deer Park in the Western Region Football League next season.
But Lavington had the last laugh by winning Sunday’s preliminary final by 46 points at the John Flower Oval.
Fevola ends his four-season Yarrawonga career with two premierships, 357 goals from 65 games and countless memories for Ovens and Murray league fans.
“You can see that in the way I play my footy, I have loved my time here, winning flags,” Fevola, 34, said.
“To come from fifth to make the prelim, everyone wrote us off.
“Obviously pretty emotional now, it hasn’t really sunk in.
“We’ll have a few beers tonight and a few 100 tomorrow.
“And then it will sink in mate, when I move back to Melbourne.”
Fevola’s heroics threatened to lift Yarrawonga into an unlikely seventh straight grand final against Albury.
The Yarrawonga co-coach booted 10 in last week’s win over Wodonga Raiders, but was starved of supply against the Panthers.
Playing on Lavington coach James Saker, Fevola didn’t kick his first goal until 24 minutes into the second quarter, but by that stage Lavington was in control.
The star kicked Yarrawonga’s only goal of the third term and what a gem it was.
Surrounded by four Panthers, Fevola scooped the ball off the ground and through heavy traffic threw it on his boot and through for a miraculous goal.
He kicked the first three goals of the last quarter as Yarrawonga threw one final punch at the Panthers.
Lavington counter-punched with the next four to floor the Pigeons.
But, fittingly, it was Fevola who kicked the final goal of the game to finish with a game-high six and a whopping 20 from his three finals games this season.
Fevola said he was proud of his teammates for never giving up the fight.
“It’s obviously a disappointing way to go out,” he said.
“They kicked five goals in the first quarter, four from free kicks.
“But we just kept plugging away, that’s our group.
“I love those boys, love playing with them.”
Fevola was emotional after the game and showed great sportsmanship by visiting the Lavington rooms to congratulate the Panthers on making the grand final.
Fevola will not only leave a massive hole in Yarrawonga’s forward line, but also in the hearts of the club’s many die-hard fans.
