World Footy News

The Turku Dockers have made it two out of two by claiming their second premiership in the Finland AFL in their second year of existence. The Dockers, coached by Australian ex-pat and two-time EU Cup all star Grant Siermans, beat the all-Finnish Salo Juggernauts 19.17(131) to 8.5(53).

Although the Dockers went into the match as favourites, having beaten the Juggernauts on all three encounters during the home and away season, injuries to several key Dockers players (as a result of EC2010 duty) combined with recent reinforcements to the Juggernauts squad via their high-school recruitment program suggested that the grand final could be a different story. But it wasn’t to be.

Report courtesy of Craig Primmer, photos by Antti Lipsanen.

The Dockers, who fielded an all-Finnish team for the first half of the game, came out hard and had a five goal advantage at half time with on-ballers Tomi Virtanen and Anti Vasemägi proving hard to stop in the middle and linking up well with Dockers full-forward Juuso Timosaari. Then Siermans put himself and veteran Australian Craig Primmer onto the field for most of the third quarter and the pair put on five goals between them and set up several more to give the Dockers a 12 goal lead going into the final quarter.

Salo fought hard to the end, and almost matched the Dockers in the final quarter with their star midfielder Ville Koivunen and high school recruit Lassi Salakari both kicking majors in the final term, but the Dockers were too strong on the day running out eventual winners by 78 points.

The grand final victory brings the Dockers' unbeaten run to 10 games, making them the team to beat in 2011. “It’s been a great couple of years” said Siermans, for whom the grand final was his last game as player and coach for the Dockers as he is moving back to Australia. “The new recruits we added to the boys who started the club last year gave us the luxury of a large bench in most games as well as a number of options for different line-ups.”

It’s unlikely to be one-way traffic in 2011 however, with the Helsinki Heatseekers keen to re-build after a winless season due to a horrible run with injuries and player work commitments leaving them struggling for numbers. The Vaasa Wombats are also likely to join the Finland AFL as the fourth team.

FAFL will wrap up the local season with the inaugural FAFL Cup- a one day 2x12 min 7 a side tournament in mid-September. In addition to serving as a warm-up for the Euro Cup in Milan, the tournament will give the Vaasa Wombats their first taste of competitive footy, and the other teams a chance to get some revenge on the dominant Dockers.