Renegades Honours Men bring home the VVL 2008 Premiership

As far as we can tell, it's been close to 20 years since the Renegades Honours mens team enjoyed finals success!  But after a dominating season where they held top position on the ladder from round 1, this years team has finally broken the premiership drought in a thrilling 5 set match versus Monash University!

Monash and Renegades had faced off 3 times during the regular season with Renegades being victorious on every occasion. The semi final was another matter however with the team putting in a poor showing against a fired up Monash to lose in 5 sets.

This led to a preliminary final showdown with the old enemy, Heidelberg.  Renegades had also comfortably dispatched of Heidelberg several times during the regular season, but after a shaky semi final game confidence wasn't high as they came up against the team in black. With no more second chances the Renegades team fired up and secured a berth in the Grand Final in 4 sets.

With only 1 match left standing between the team and Premiership glory, the whole club got behind the team and came out by the busload (literally) to flood the stands with Red. Donned in Renegades gear and holding the Renegades flag high the rent-a-Renegade crowd was ready to cheer our team home (and the Monash chants were in swing before the first ball was served).

Both teams came out nervously in the first set, but Monash got into their groove faster and took the set 21-25.

The Renegades found their rythm in the second set with big hitting from Sua and big blocking from Micka and Dean overwhelming the opposition. They continued in this form and took the 2nd and 3rd sets 25-18 and 25-20.

Monash weren't finished with however, and they caught Renegades dreaming of celebration beers a set early and came back in the 4th set through a strong middle attack and errors from the Renegades side of the court. A crucial time out late in the set and an inspirational flag run from Eddie got the boys fired up though and they closed the gap late in the set, losing 19-25 but importantly gaining the momentum.

The 5th set was again a nervous affair from both teams, and even a long seasoned finals campaigner was struggling to hold it together as the Renegades flag broke away from its pole at the start of the set. It was patched together quickly however and the Renegades crowd was in full voice as the team pushed ahead to win the change of ends. From their, not even having their setter blinded by a ball to the face could slow the boys as they won the race to 10 points and then surged to the finish line, winning the 5th set 15-11 and taking the 2008 VVL Premiership!

It was a great day for the team, and it was great to see so many past and present club members in the stands helping make the difference in a tight match. Here's hoping we can do it all again next year with some extra teams joining in, GO REDS!

The team

• Gavin Penny - Setter, Captain, Coach
• Taleni Afatasi - Opposite, MVP, VVL MVP, Co-coach
• Sualauv 'Sua' Faalogo - Outside, VVL top 8
• Tom Hals - Pass / Hitter
• Chris O'keefe - Pass / Hitter
• Matt Hallowell - Pass / Hitter
• Dean Penny - Middle
• Mick Werner - Middle
• Bernd Ploderer - Middle
• Alan Cook - Passer
• Matt Rozycki - Libero
• Eric Orton - Setter

...and some helpers

• Dave Warwick - Wizened Elder, Finals Coach
• Gus Cirillo - Wizened Elder, Assistant Finals Coach / Statistician