By KATH GANNAWAY
THE last time the boys in Emerald Black lost a grand final was in under-12s and there was no doubt on Sunday that they are a champion team.
With consecutive under-13, under-14, under-15 and now under-16 premiership flags to hang in the Emerald clubrooms, the senior club must be eagerly anticipating their contribution in the years to come.
The grand final experience showed through with Emerald playing a determined but Mount Evelyn team that coach Adam Easton said had never played in a grand final before.
DRJFL president John Meyers said the under-16s top four sides had produced some great games of football with Mount Evelyn clearly the second best team all year.
He rated the Emerald team’s record as exceptional, not only in grand final terms, but achieving 69 consecutive wins in the home-and-away games.
“I’ve seen a lot of these boys come up and mature … I still don’t understand the hair cuts, but we can handle that,” he quipped.
Emerald coach Mark Pedder congratulated the team on another great win rating their track record of consecutive wins as an outstanding effort.
“We have been so blessed from the under-10s through to have seen this group go from boys to men and it’s been a real pleasure to coach them,” he said.
Best-on-ground went to Ayhan Bajramov.
Final scores were Emerald Black 10.12 (72) to Mount Evelyn 7.11 (53).
