Story & photos Eve Jeffery
A scoreless first half of to-ing and fro-ing saw both the Byron Bay Rams and the Lismore Thistles enter the field after the break in anticipation of the possibility of a win and ready to bring the match home in the Men’s Premier League Reserve Grade final at Oakes Oval in Lismore.
It wasn’t long before the Rams’ Sequoya Rawson-Smith broke the seal and it was as if the game suddenly woke up. Byron’s elation was short lived as the spell also broke for the Thistles and Luke Kennedy snapped in one after another like Leggo into a fortress and Byron were again on the back foot.
The Rams gathered the remains of their strength to even the score but the bolt slid into the gate when, with only a few minutes to go, Joel McClennand found the mark again, and though they turned up the steam, in the end the clock beat Byron and the 3–1 victory was all for Lismore.