BOTH Central Broken Hill’s Jordan Etto and long term servant at this level, South Broken Hill’s evergreen champion Marc Purcell were members of the Northern Zone side that finished sixth, despite winning their opening fixture and being in grand final contention on Saturday.
“Jordan started the weekend with a bang, really set us up through the middle in the first game,” Northern Zone coach Matt Promnitz confirmed.
“He gave us plenty of drive, was very strong in the contest and was one of our better players against the Eyre Peninsula.
“Unfortunately, he banged his knee in the second game which hindered his movement.
“Jordan tried to push through on the Sunday and unfortunately couldn’t continue playing against Central.
“Marc played in an on-ball role all weekend as a inside midfielder.
“His pressure around the contest and ability to win the first possession is first class and instrumental in getting it forward.
“Both played really well all weekend, unfortunately Jordan Etto’s injury to his knee slowed him down.”
Playing in the opening men’s clash on Friday night, the Northern Zone defeating the Eyre Peninsula side, after an aggressive start.
Charging out to the blocks in contests that were two by 25-minute halves in the opening round, the Northern side was up – 5.1 (31) to 1.6 (12) – by 19 points at the initial break.
After a more even second half, Northern secured a win by 11 points, 8.3 (51) to 5.10 (40).
Marc Purcell and Jordan Etto were both more than serviceable in this match, although they were not in the best player lists.
In the second game on Saturday afternoon, full of expectation, Northern started poorly, only able to kick three points (to three goals) in the opening 25 minutes.
They weren’t able to reel the South East Zone side in, going down 2.5 (17) to 7.3 (45), which meant the different between playing in the grand final and the fifth versus sixth play-off match on the second oval on Sunday.
Playing the ranking game on Sunday morning, against the Central Zone, the finals were a four (20-metre) quarters.
This game started at 9.30am, kicking the dew off the grass.
In a low scoring affair, the Central Zone got home 8.5 (53) to 6.5 (41).
Purcell can regard himself as unlucky to not get a mention in this best player lists in this contest, after finding plenty of the ball.
Etto played but was in his civilian clothes by games end, having injured his PCL on Saturday, and is expected to miss a month of football.
