The 2023 Sale Touch Grand Final was played last Wednesday night in ideal conditions at Stephenson Park.
Mavericks ended up winning the title, after defeating Phoenix 7-3. It only took the Maverick captain, Bridgete McMillan, four minutes to score the first try of the night.
Lachlan Unsworth followed a few minutes later to give the Mavericks a two-try lead.
Chris Luttrell has had a great season both as a player and a referee and he went on to make two tries in the first half.
Phoenix player, Marcus Sbaglia-Smith, made one of his classy tries; this was as a result of an inside pass from teammate, Nick Elliott.
At halftime, Mavericks led 4-1, however it only took five minutes into the second half for Phoenix to score the first try through Sbaglia-Smith giving him his second for the game.
Maverick player Zac Pattison replied with a try following a pass by Bodhi Banister.
Kyung Stewart scored his first try of the game at the 11-minute mark in the second half. This was the last try by Phoenix.
Mavericks then followed with Unsworth scoring his second try for the game.
Ben Trimmer intercepted a pass and then ran the 80 metres to give him his first try of the night.
Chris Luttrell and Bridgete McMillan were named as best male and female player respectively in the Grand Final. Other players to record votes were Sbaglia-Smith, Pattison and Alissa Fenning.
Presentation night followed the final, with Thomas English (Mustangs) and Marie-Claire McKenna (Porky’s) winning the respective male and female encouragement awards.
Bodhi Banister (Mavericks) won the male best and fairest award with 21 votes. Mia Van de Vyver (Porky’s) took out the female award with 11 votes.
Long Drop players Michael Sack and Brysen Nottle recorded 14 and 13 votes, respectively. Mackenzie Laskowski and Zoe Curran each recorded six votes.
Sack won the male try scoring with 36 tries, Van de Vyver won the female try scoring with 12.
Banister was runner-up male try scorer with 32 tries, and Zoe Curran was runner-up female try scorer with 10.
