Football
9 September, 2025
Nhill ends Dimboola's finals hopes
After an impressive start, Nhill held off a fast-finishing Dimboola side on Sunday to progress to the preliminary final this week.
Nhill led 6.4 (40) to 0.1 (1) at the first interval but Dimboola did marginally better in the second, with half-time scores 6.5 (41) to 2.6 (18).
That difference of 23 points at big break grew to 24 points heading into the final quarter but Dimboola threw everything they had at Nhill in the final term, only to fall agonisingly close to pulling off one of the greatest revivals.
The final score was Nhill 10.7 (67) to Dimboola 9.9 (63).
Nhill was best led by Daniel Batson and Jarryd Dahlenburg while Ben Miller and Jonathon Ross battled hard all day for Dimboola.
Goal scoring was a combined effort, with Clay Shadforth, Frazer Driscoll and Lucas Dahlenburg (Nhill) and Jackson Calder, Jonathon Ross and Noah Campbell (Dimboola) all finding the big sticks a couple of times each for their respective teams.
Co-coach of Nhill, Trevor Ryan, spoke to Wimmera Mallee News after his side's win, sharing his relief.
"Towards the end I was a little bit worried because you just don’t know if a free kick goes your way or it doesn’t go your way," Ryan said.
"(It could be a) quick kick their way or your way, it's just a fine line, but we hung in there and got the win so it was fantastic to see everyone excited as they are.
"It's been a long road for this footy club so it's good to get into a prelim and hopefully go to that next step."
Ryan said his side made a point of getting off to a good start.
"We made that a real focus and we got the opportunity to kick with that breeze in the first quarter," he said.
"We had to put a score on the board and, to our credit, we did that.
"We didn't waste too many opportunities so that did set our game up.
"Obviously we had to hang in there from after that because I don't think we kicked a goal against the wind, but they kicked two maybe."
With a handy lead heading into the final quarter, Ryan said the message to his side was about matchups: making sure they got them right and then shutting the game down as much as possible around stoppages.
"And I just purely reminded them of the work that they've done over a long period of time and it's 30 minutes away, 24-25 minutes away from the prelim," Ryan said.
"To their credit they did that and we get to play another day."
Nhill will now line up against minor premiers Ararat in the preliminary next Saturday, and Ryan said although he had dared to dream just a bit in the lead-up to last week's game, a lot more thought would go into the matchup this week.
"I've got thoughts in the back of my head," he said.
"I've been thinking about the possibilities if we got through so we will do a bit of work on that through the week, including around the matchups again.
"It's a different ball game when you play Ararat, who are obviously a good football team, undefeated for most of the year, but playing at City Oval anything can happen, so we'll be out to do our best for it."
