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2010 State Wide Championship Final Squad - Back Left: P.McBeath, T.Hinsgton, J.vanZetten, G.Tams, L.Tuma, B.Lichtendonk, M.Pooley, D.Cuschieri, S.Luck, A.Whitemore, M.Ackerly. Front Left: T.Ludby, A.Nicholson, A.Demeijer, I.Dumbuya, J.Summers, S.Jago, P.Bremner, P.Lanau-Atkinson

The Forestry Tasmania, Tasmanian State Championship Final for 2010 would be played between Northern Rangers and South Hobart.

South Hobart have gone through their season undefeated and looking to secure their 5^th piece of silverware, while Northern Premier League Champions Northern Rangers were looking to spoil their parade and upset the favourites.

Northern Rangers were blessed to be at full strength as was South Hobart, no changes to either line up from the semi final victories that instated the two teams to this position.

A strong crowd had steadily built up during the day to witness the penultimate game of the season, with the Ranger Army creating a great atmosphere with creative and well sung songs in support of the travelling side.

Northern Rangers Coach Adam Whitemore had dropped Paul Bremner back to just behind Stefan Jago upfront, to play a high midfield role, and create more pressure on the South Hobart midfield, creating a 4-5-1 formation, and in the opening 15 minutes it was working a treat.

Northern Rangers held the ball well and created some promising chances early, and sent an early warning signs to a confident South Hobart, that the club had not only come to play, but also to push for the win.

South soon adjusted to the pressure and started to show their strength across the park and wrestled control of the game into their favour.

Whilst Rangers still held their own, it was South Hobart that started to look the more likely to score in the first half.  Tom Roach was having a fierce battle in midfield with Todd Hinston, while Derek Schipper was at his masterful best for the biggest game of his career to date.

Jonny Lo had the best of the chances in the first half, almost scoring twice, but desperate and clinical defending from Luke Tuma and Sam Luck were keeping the South Hobart stalwart goalless.

A miss cued clearance from Marshall Pooley almost gifted South the lead, but a great save erased the mistake.

Nil all at half time was probably about the measure of the game, both teams would have felt hard done by to have conceded late in the half.

Whitemore’s message to the boys at half time was put more pressure on the South midfield and that will create chances from turn overs and mistakes, lift the intensity and ball movement and the goals would come, however Ken Morton must have had an equally motivating half time talk, as the South Hobart side came out with a blistering opening 15 minutes that saw Rangers put under pressure as South continually drove goal ward, To Rangers credit, the boys never panicked and continued to play the ball out of defence.

South Hobart eventually broke the dead lock with the only score of the game when a cross came in from the left and found Tom Roach who scored his second goal in two years against Rangers in such fashion.

Whitemore immediately went for the jugular and sent Bremner up next to Jago in attack and pushed the whole team up the park in an attempt to equalise.

Some in the media have criticised his decision in making this switch so late, if not starting this formation, but Whitemore’s formation almost certainly kept Rangers in the contest to this point, without it, South Hobart may have already put the game beyond doubt.

Regardless of what you make of it, the formation change put South on the back foot from here on in, and the final 15 minutes in particular belonged to Rangers.

The weight of chances had been in South Hobart’s favour, and Rangers had struggled to this point to mount a sizable chance on goal, but in the last 15 minutes Rangers could have so easily equalised.

Hingston smashed a towering header right into the South’s keepers gloves from Tams’ corner.  Tams himself created some brilliant chances with a long cross that almost went in when Kruijver fumbled over the bar, and then a blistering shot from 25 yards out that just shaved the bar.

Bremner too had two good chances to equalise, but it wasn’t to be and time ran out and installed South Hobart as the 2011 undisputed champions of Tasmanian Football.

Clearly not the most liked team in the South, but this is only because others cant emulate the clubs success one would feel, South Hobart proved today why they are the holders of all trophies on offer to them.

Congratulations to South Hobart on their success and to Ken Morton for assembling such a team of fine athletes.

For Rangers on the other hand, it was a fine effort, and few at the ground ,bar one strange blogger, would fault the way the club went about approaching this game.

At the start of this year, few if any outside of Tony Ludby and Adam Whitemore believed the club could repeat the maiden success of 2009, let alone go the distance to the State Wide Championship and walk away having given South Hobart, by their own admission, their hardest fought win of the calendar year.

With some exciting new signings expected over the coming months, Rangers are building a formidable side for the defence of their back to back titles, and a second crack at the State Championship in 2011, the sole measure of improvement in 2011.

From northernrangers.com congratulations to Adam and Tony, and the playing group on a job well done.

Adam Whitemore said after the game “It's always disappointing to lose, regardless of the opposition. South Hobart were the better side for much of the game, but we made it too easy for them at times. We spoke about pressuring the ball, and for much of the game we did this well, but our inability to sustain this cost us the goal. We didn't put enough pressure on the crossers, their delivery was generally excellent, and eventually we paid the penalty. My second disappointment was that we played the ball forward one or two passes too early, which didn't allow us time to get Bremner up with Jago, and our wide men forward. We spoke about it at half time again, but were still inclined to play the early ball into him, rather than wide.

Tactically I was fairly happy, and wouldn't change much given the opposition. Against South you can't play an open game. We have some excellent athletes, but they have a team of them, and their ability to move the ball quickly in transition can really hurt you. I thought we closed down spaces really well, and were very disciplined in doing so, but again were not always quick enough to pressure. In our league you can get away with this. South play at a much higher intensity than any team in our league, so you can't pressure high and be overly attacking from the outset, and you certainly can't have your back 4 too high.

We chose to concede possession in their back 3rd where they like to switch play, but can't hurt you, and be compact in our half. Our mindset was still to be positive and attack, which we did, but with fitness issues in the centre, the extra man in midfield was a sensible option. We still had at around 10 efforts on goal, a couple of them very good chances which we'd normally take.

In the period in which they scored I was contemplating a 2nd forward with a view to pushing for the win. Once we made the change with 25 to go we did look more dangerous, but the game also opened up noticeably and for the first time they were able to penetrate through the centre of midfield and get in behind us, and had a number of chances as a result of the formation change. When we changed to a 343 for the last 15 we really looked threatening, stopping their fullbacks getting forward, and giving us possession higher up, but realistically there is no way we could have sustained this for 45 minutes, let alone 90 minutes. Patty Lanau-Atkinson injected some real attacking thrust, and in hindsight should have been on 10 minutes earlier.

The first 15 minutes were really good. We were straight onto the attack, fullbacks overlapping, moved the ball quickly, kept possession, and had the first 2 chances. The quality of our possession then dropped slightly and they got on top - again that greater intensity. We had other good periods, but didn't get enough possession in the last 3rd. I was really happy that we tried to play from the back whenever we could, never easy against an athletic side who press you. We kept the ball down, worked it through midfield , switched play and looked to find spaces between lines, even at the death. The back four were excellent and played out even under real pressure which is a great credit.

Hingston and Schipper were quality in midfield. Luck and Tuma magnificent at the back, while Jago continues to show signs of developing into a class player. I'm really proud of the boys for a fine season, particularly given we lost 8 players and 500 game of senior experience, and replaced it with youth players and a few reserves with about 20 games between them - with a new style of play. We need to take the next step now, and it is a big one.

Congratulations again to Ken and South Hobart. A great side who we'd love to play every week. Quality players playing lovely football - hard yet very fair, sporting and humble. A role mode for us.”