Ballarat triumphant in inter-league spectacle with Hampden

Sebastopol's Riley O'Keefe earned best-on-ground honours, while Koroit's Mac Peterson was voted Hampden's best player on Saturday.

The Bottle Greens, led by Paddy O'Sullivan, enjoyed a strong start en route to an early lead, but inaccuracy in front of goal prevented them from escaping out to a larger quarter time margin.

Ballarat wasted no time in erasing the 11-point quarter time margin with early goals to skipper Izaac Grant (Redan) and Kyle Borg (Melton) snatching back the lead.

The Navy Blues had all the play in the second term, booting five goals to one as they took a 15-point lead into half time.

East Point's Liam Canny kicked a goal on the siren as Anthony Koutoufides' side was up and about heading down into the rooms.

Ballarat expected Hampden to come out firing in the third quarter, with the Bottle Greens kicking towards the scoring end in the third term.

The clubrooms' end of Mars Stadium boasted 19 scoring shots to just five at the scoreboard end.

The trend continued early in the third quarter with Hampden's Mitch Bidmade and Ryley Hutchins kicking the first two goals of the term.

Hutchins added his second major six minutes later, but Borg also found the goals for the third time as Ballarat crucially fought off a Hampden comeback.

It meant Ballarat took a two-goal advantage into the final term in which it had the scoring end in its favour.

The Navy Blues appeared to have the game almost wrapped up with quick goals to Jack Riding (North Ballarat) and Liam Canny (East Point).

By the 11^th minute of the final quarter Ballarat held a 27-point lead, before a late surge by Hampden.

The Bottle Greens booted three-consecutive goals, trimming the margin to just 10 points with a few minutes to play.

With the game in the balance, Ballarat captain Izaac Grant went back with the flight to take a courageous, Jonathan Brown-like mark in the goal square and converted on the match-sealing goal.

It saw Ballarat record a 16-point inter-league victory, its first since defeating Bendigo in 2017.

BFNL 3.0 8.3 10.7 13.13 (91)

HFNL 4.5 5.6 8.7 11.9 (75)

GOALS - Ballarat: K.Borg 3, I.Grant 2, J.Sutton 2, L.Canny 2, W.Liston 1, R.Miller 1, M.Fino 1, J.Riding 1; Hampden: J.Bermingham 2, R.Hutchins 2, H.Cook 2, M.Bidnade 1, J.Grundy 1, J.Hopper 1, H.Ryan 1, T.Jennings

BEST - Ballarat: R.O'Keefe, K.Borg, H.Minton-Connell, J.Egan, R.Polkinghorne, R.Miller; Hampden: M.Petersen, J.Grundy, T.Jennings, P.O'Sullivan, H.Sinnott, J.Hopper.