After eleven weeks of fierce competition, the last two standing Farmlands Baywide Premier Mens teams left for tomorrow's final have been found.  Te Puna will host Mount Maunganui Sports at Maramatanga Park in  what should be an absolute cracker of a game.  Unfortunately, tomorrow's weather forecast isn't that flash, so both teams should have a "wet weather" game plan up their sleeve.

Both teams are no strangers to finals footy with these same two teams playing out a nail biter final last year at Sir Gordon Tietjens Field Blake Park.  A last minute Carlos Price penalty was all that separated the two teams that day when Mt Maunganui snatched a 1 point victory in front of a parochial home crowd.

Tommorrows match is expected to be just as tight.

Mt Maunganui Sports captain Carlos Price, comments, "There's a real proud feel about the club at the moment.  All four of our senior mens and womens teams have made finals this year.  Our Premier Womens team have already taken out their competition and with our Colts hosting Te Puna at Sir Gordon Tietjens Field and our Development team playing in tomorrow's Western Bay Senior/Development Final also against Te Puna, we are all really excited, especially as this is our 100th centenial year. "

Price continues, "We've come along way since our 8th placing in the 2021 Baywide competition and alot of that needs to be atributed to Rodney Vollaire, our Head of Rugby.  At the end of that season we all took a long hard look at ourselves and realised we needed to be better.  Rodney introduced some small cultural things, like making sure we hosted our visitors right with a Kai, like how we understood the importance of wearing the jersey with pride for our whanau and for those that have gone before us.  Just little things like that have really galvanised the club as a whole."

Te Puna captain Te Aihe Toma comments, "This has been a big achievement for our club.  I remember fondly when we hosted three finals back in 2019, which was our centenial year and we won, how amazing it was not only for our club but also for our community.  We are again hosting two of the three finals tomorrow with our Development team playing Mount Maunganui Sports in the Western Bay Senior local/Development final and then our game straight afterwards.  I'm really hoping for a similar outcome tomorrow. "

The match will be livestreamed by Local Gecko Productions and can be viewed free of charge on their Facebook page.

To confirm, the finals are as follows:

Farmlands Baywide Premier Mens Final

Te Puna v Mount Maunganui Sports 2.45pm Maramatanga Park No.1 Te Puna.

Western Bay Senior Local/Development Final

Te Puna v Mount Maunganui Sports 1.00pm Maramatanga Park No.1 Te Puna.

Farmlands Baywide Colts/U85kgs Final

Mount Maunganui Sports v Te Puna 1.00pm Sir Gordon Tietjens Field Blake Park

Eastern Bay Senior A Final

Te Teko v Paroa 2.15pm Whakatane Rugby Park No.1

Eastern Bay Senior B Final

Taneatua v Galatea/Waiohau12.30pm Whakatane Rugby Park No.1

Eastern Bay Senior Reserves Final

Opotiki B v Ruatoki B 12.30pm Whakatane Rugby Park No.2

Article added: Thursday 06 July 2023