ARMIDALE District Football Association’s season came to a close on Saturday with eleven grand finals played at Doody Park.
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The two under 16s’ grand finals kick-started the day with East Armidale defeating The Armidale School’s team 2-1 in the 16a division and Armidale City Westside defeating Guyra Pumas 2-1 in 16b.
In under 14a’s Armidale City Westside defeated TAS 4-1 and in 14b’s, East Armidale prevailed over Demon Knights Merlins 5-0.
In under 12’s, Norths United overcame East Armidale 5-1 to win A division, B division was won by DK Stormbirds who beat TAS White 2-1 and TAS Blue beat Guyra Gladiators in C division 3-2.
Open division four was a nail-biter with Norths United snatching the 2-1 over TAS victory in extra time.
As was the case for the second division final between the same club’s where Norths held off a fast finishing TAS side in extra time for a 3-2 win.
Norths were up 2-0 at half-time before two goals to the schoolboys after the break ensured the match would go down to the wire.
"It was a really good game to watch,” team manager Lindsay Grigg said.
"The message [before extra time] to the boys was to keep at it.
"They had been fighting hard through the whole match.
"You can never turn your back on TAS, they are always strong opponents.
"The boys do enjoy playing against them because of that.”
The first grade final was won by TAS 2-0 over Glen Innes Highlanders.
The third grade match between South Armidale United and Westside 35’s was a physical encounter with both sides putting everything on the line to grab the victory.
South Armidale eventually prevailed, taking out the title with a 3-1 win.
"It well as being physical it was fairly heavy because of the wet field so it was a pretty hard game all round,” coach Gary Wright said.
"It made it difficult to play good football but we took our chances.
"Happy to take the win under the conditions, it was pretty physical and they are an older experienced side, they have been together a very long time so it was good to get over the top of them.”
The club also held their presentation evening on Saturday night where the season’s best were rewarded for their efforts.
"Josh Fern got our players player for the year because he was consistently good, Jake Pamment was good, he scored three goals in the grand final so that is a pretty good effort,” Wright said.
"Michael Orr clubman of the year which is a very good award and Nardi Pollock from the Royal Hotel got the club appreciation award which she was pretty appreciative.”