It was heartbreak again for the Hume City Broncos as they fell agonisingly short in the Big V men’s championship grand final on Saturday.
The Broncos were hoping it was third time lucky under coach Matt Foster and that they would finally get the championship they were after.
Standing in the way of the Broncos and their first championship since 2004, was the McKinnon Cougars who had come from third to make the grand final.
The Cougars had beaten the Broncos in their last two grand finals.
The Broncos, who had started strong in their first two finals, again led early with the margin six points at quarter time.
The Cougars counted and scores were level heading into the main break.
McKinnon led by as much as nine points in the third quarter before the Broncos through Robert Coman fought back.
Coman hit eight points late in the quarter to get the Broncos going and they managed to take a two point lead into the final quarter.
The Broncos led for much of the early part of the last quarter with scores level with 6.18 on the clock.
The lead changed hands again and went back and forth before the Cougars took the lead for the final time with less than four minutes on the clock.
Hume struggled to find offensive rhythm down the stretch which proved costly. They hit just two free throws in the final three minutes.
Jordan Geer for the Cougars stood tall and was able to guide his side to an 87-81 win.
Ricardo Time top scored for the Broncos with 25 points while Kavione Green had 21 points.
Speaking at the postgame presentation, Foster said he felt like he had been in the same position a few times before.
“McKinnon you’ve got us three times now, I don’t know what we need to do to beat you guys,” he said.
“So much respect for your program.
“To our team, this season we didn’t lose a lot and we’re a young team.
“We had a good couple weeks but couldn’t get it done tonight, got beaten by a hell of a team that put it out there tonight [Saturday].
“You should be proud of the year.”
Foster also paid tribute to the supporters who showed up each week, along with everyone who helped put the team and the program together.
“It takes a lot of effort to put a team out. We’re very fortunate we are the ones out there.”
Several Broncos players are up for the Big V awards that will be presented on September 6.
Coman and Zach McKenzie are both up for championship youth player of the year, Foster is up for coach of the year, McKenzie is up for defensive player of the year and all star five, while Kavione Green and Time are also up for the all-star five honours.
