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Maulers Take Out Inaugural Swedish Flag
A little bit of history was made on a chilly Swedish afternoon in Malmö on Saturday, August 30, when the home team, Port Malmö Maulers would clash with the Helsingborg West Raptors in the first ever Grand Final in DAFL's Skåne Division. The Maulers went in to the match as slight favorites, having beaten West the previous week when all that was at stake was the right to host this match - both teams had already sealed their final berth. The game also saw the second Swede to play 100 DAFL games - Christer "Kryddan" Hjelm who was awarded the traditional tankard cup presented by Mick Sitch and Andreas Svensson.
The cultural make-up of the two teams could hardly have been more different The Maulers were made up of seven Australians, two each from New Zealand, Great Britain and Sweden (yes, they did have some Swedes), and one each from France and the USA. The Raptors, on the other hand, had two Aussies and the rest were locals - all Swedes (but with names like Perna, Garcia, Sajjadi, Salihu and Navarro, you´d be excused for thinking they were fielding a Rest of the World team). As a result, the Maulers had the edge in polish, but the Raptors were the more enthusiastic and passionate.
This was obvious in the first quarter. Both sides were a little slow and tentative out of the blocks, and the Raptors took the opportunity to jump their more fancied opponents. Amazingly, the opening goal in the first minute was booted by 16-year-old, Johannes Malmros, one of three Raptors playing in their first match! The early domination from Helsingborg West started to wane already as the quarter came to an end, and a late goal from the Maulers put them only 11 points down at the first break. Mention must be made of Mauler full back Mark White, who kept spearhead Anthony Perna scoreless in the first quarter and forced his opponent to switch positions for the rest of the game.
The Maulers being behind at this stage gave those used to watching the Saints an interesting insight into footy, Swedish style. Their capacity to abuse each other has not diminished at all with the new format, in fact the opportunity to dish it out now that they are not all on the same team has been taken up with relish.
From the second quarter onwards, the more experienced Maulers began to take control. David Page Brown was dominant across the middle and half forward, and in all Port Malmö kicked six goals to one in the middle half to take the game by the scruff of the neck. Cameron Stewart and Marcus Sutton were working well together to add to the Maulers score.
It was interesting to compare the Skåne division to Sjælland. With so many new players, the skill level and the pace of the game was noticeably slower, but the physical nature of the tackling and the "hard at the ball" aspects of the game were just the same, probably even harder in some cases. Another area where Skåne exceeded Sjælland was that of the duckshit - the ground made Stefan look like Royal Melbourne!
At the last break, Helsingborg West had the job in front of them. They´d kicked only one goal since quarter time and now they needed four to get in front. They would struggle to do that, but with the tireless efforts of Roger Nilsson, coach Michael Garcia (who took a mark in the last quarter Peter Knights would have been proud of) Anthony Perna and Robin Barte who wad dominating the ruck, they simply would not give an inch. So much so that the Maulers must have walked off as one of the few premiership teams in any league not to kick a goal in the last quarter of their Grand Final win.
After the game, the Maulers were presented with their premiership cup and each player received a medal - in the red and yellow colors of Skåne. Page Brown was awarded Best on Ground and Nick Ragghianti was announced as the winner of the Skåne Division Best and Fairest (the "Lundquist Medal"?). Jeremy Williamson also did a very good job in a game that was at times difficult to umpire.
From the events of the day, it can be concluded that Skåne footy has a future. Port Malmö have the largest contingent of Aussie fans ever seen at a DAFL club - there must be more Aussies living in Malmö than in Moonee Ponds And those GOALPOSTS ! To hell with the PVC pipes, just pop down to your local post office and get some of those stiff rolls of cardboard used to send posters in. No worries!
You can see some photos from the game here.
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