ISAAC Farmilo had triple the reasons to celebrate after Services Workies made it six straight Tamworth men’s first grade titles with a 6-2 win over Tudor Wests on Sunday.
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On top of the premiership, Farmilo also bagged a double and was named the inaugural Butch Southwell medal winner.
The award was established by the men’s standing committee this year in honour of the man they affectionately knew as “Butch” and who gave so much for the sport, to recognise the player of the grand final.
“That was actually a pleasant surprise,” Farmilo said.
“I thought I had a really quiet first half.
“It was an honour, especially to win it for the first time.”
Farmilo scored the second of Workies’ three first-half goals, added another in the second half and had a hand in another, and was generally dangerous up front.
“It was definitely the best game we’ve played all year. Everyone played well,” he said.
He said it wasn’t until Chris White put away their third goal, after Isaac Woodley had injected and forced a turnover, that he felt on top.
“But always in the back of my mind was last week,” he said, referring to their epic final against Kiwi Diggers when they led 3-nil and scored with 40 seconds to go to force extra time.
“They scored and got one back and I said ‘please, not again’.”
But he and fellow double-scorer Chris Ninness combined minutes later to restore their three-goal buffer and they never looked like losing from there.
The individual brilliance of the likes of Farmilo is one of the things that makes Workies so dangerous and he was able to find a fair bit of space.
“We play with four people in the middle and four at the back so we have a lot of space for the forwards,” he said.
They found them quite a few times with long balls.
“We’ve got that ability, that vision to find people up front,” he said.
Coach and dad Andrew had said leading in that the key for them would be whether they could score goals or, more precisely, finish their chances.
Their finishing was pretty good on Sunday.
It’s the fourth of the six titles that Isaac has been involved in, and in his opinion the best.
“That’s the best I’ve been in because we weren’t expected to win at the start of the year,” he said.
They had lost almost half of last year’s side.
It was more the calibre though than the number itself. Names like Sam Liles, Ryan Martin, Simon Massey.
Farmilo had a good year and was equal second with South coach Chris Massey on 15 points in the first grade best and fairest.
Kiwi Diggers’ Antony Doolan finished on 18 points to take out the award with Tudors coach Sam Lobsey back in fourth on 14.
