Greg Bonetti touches down for Sumans Engineering as Marchiori captain Brendan Giason closes in.
Picture: Anthony Stipo
Picture: Anthony Stipo
Touch football
ANOTHER season, another title.
The Marchiori Development juggernaut has rolled on with an easy 10-2 win over a depleted Sumans Engineering in Monday’s first division touch grand final at Ted Scobie Oval.
- PICTURES: Griffith touch grand finals
Victory never looked in doubt for the reigning champions, who started strongly and then refused to lift the foot off the pedal.
It was the perfect end to a near-perfect season for Marchiori, with the team’s only loss coming via a forfeit on the Australia Day public holiday.
Delighted captain Brendan Giason said the side’s cohesiveness – and some shrewd recruiting – was the reason for Marchiori’s continued dominance at the peak of Griffith touch football.
The core of the team has been together for close to two decades but the addition of some of the city’s best-known sportsmen – including former Demons captain-coach Andrew Cullen, Darlington Point-Coleambally’s Josh Bryant and Swans pair Guy Orton and Michael Duncan – have complemented the veterans well.
“We’re all getting a bit older now. We’ve been playing together since we were 15 or 16,” Giason said.
“We did heaps of training back in those days, played rep together, put in the hard yards and the wins have been coming.
“We’re just waiting for some young teams to come and knock us off, really.”
The absence of a host of Sumans Engineering players turned what should have been a close grand final into something of an anti-climax.
While the side in blue struggled to complete early sets, Orton, Dominic Giason and Bryant all crossed to turn Marchiori’s dominance into scoreboard pressure.
The one-way traffic continued with a pair of touchdowns to Kris Duncan before the break to establish a 5-1 lead.
It could have been a lot closer had two Sumans tries not been ruled out by referees Frank and Nadine Scarfone, who made history as the first father-daughter tandem to take control of a grand final in Griffith first-grade touch history.
Greg Bonetti went over for the first try after the interval to make it 5-2, but Marchiori found an immediate response through Michael DePaoli, who bagged a second-half double, putting the result beyond doubt.
Pace merchant Bryant completed his hat-trick late in the game while Michael Duncan also went over to put the cherry on top for Marchiori.
Marchiori Development 10
Sumans Engineering 2