06/09/2026
🏆🏆 GRAND FINAL RECAP 🏆🏆
Saturday September 5th saw TWO Moolap teams make the Tennis Geelong Winter Season Grand Finals.
After a grueling home and away season, both sides made the big dance via very different pathways.
Section 1 Open hosted Surfcoast Torquay at home in an elimination final, grinding out a 3-1 win before travelling up the road to top side Newcomb, where they produced another 3-1 victory to book their spot in the big one.
Section 4 Open LeoLaps finished second and travelled to Grovedale Black in a qualifying final, winning a nail-biting contest 2 rubbers all, 5 sets to 3, to set up a home Grand Final.
And then came Grand Final day…
🌧️ The scene: Wet. Windy. Proper winter tennis weather.
The 1 Open crew: Lachy, Connor, Chris and Callum — travelled to Grovedale for what looked like a pretty even contest on paper.
Callum battled hard in the opening singles, going down 3-6, 2-6. Chris and Connor then lined up in the opening doubles, working their way to a 6-4 first set before rolling through 6-1 in the second. All squared up!
Grovedale came out firing against Callum and Connor, smashing out a 6-2, 6-2 win to take the lead.
Enter Lachy.
Lachy did Lachy things, grinding out a 6-1, 6-2 victory.
🧮 CALCULATORS OUT…
Moolap wins by ONE GAME!!!
2 rubbers all.
4 sets all.
33 games to 32!!!
🏆 SECTION 1 OPEN PREMIERS! 🏆
Congratulations to Lachy, Connor, Chris and Callum on an absolutely awesome victory!
Meanwhile, back at Moolap Reserve, the weather was doing exactly the same thing: showers on and off all day and enough wind to take Trump's toupee clean off his head! 💨
Hayden kicked things off in the singles against his Ocean Grove White opponent, grinding out a 3-6 first set before copping a touch-up 1-6 in the second.
Georgia and Lee were their brilliant best, smashing out a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
Again… all tied up!
Hayden and Georgia then combined for a gritty 6-4 first set before trotting away with the second 6-1 to give Moolap the lead. Tom was still locked in on the second singles, grinding out a 7-5 first set.
While his teammates had already done the maths and were congratulating each other on the win, Tom wasn't interested in premature celebrations.
He was finishing the job. And finish it he did, grinding out another 6-4.
3 rubbers to 1.
🏆 PREMIERS!!! 🏆
Congratulations to Hayden, Georgia, Lee and Tom on a fantastic season and a bloody brilliant Grand Final performance!
Two Grand Finals.
Two Premierships.
Can't get much better than that! 🏆🏆
And a special shout-out to Leopold Tennis Club for their partnership in 4 Open. We've definitely got a good thing going! 🤝
🍻 THE CELEBRATIONS
The Winter Season break-up and presentations took place at the Wharf Shed on the Geelong Waterfront.
Food, bevvies and plenty of good times followed, with Mr Moolap himself, Phil Hunt, cracking jokes and taking plenty of untimely photos while both premiership teams relived the events of the day.
Mr President Matt Pettigrew kicked off the presentations just after 9pm, thanking everyone for another awesome day at Moolap.
Night Rep Sophie De Wit then stepped up to hand out premiership medals to Moolap's Two Phones Chol and Zing Kings for their Thursday Triples triumphs a few weeks ago.
She also presented the MVP medals:
🏅 Two Phones Chol — Connor Chivell
🏅 Zing Kings — Stuart McRae
🏅 Bearded Guys — Brad Canny
Next up were the Senior Awards.
Jackson Maddison stepped up to congratulate our newly crowned premiers and present premiership medals to our Section 1 Open and Section 4 Open LeoLaps teams.
He then presented the Most Consistent Awards:
🏅 1 Open — Connor Chivell
🏅 2 Open Black — Jake Weakley
🏅 2 Open Yellow — Lucas Nesci
🏅 2 Open White — Sam Sheppard
🏅 3 Open — Jake McInnes
🏅 4 Open — Darcy King
🏅 4 Open LeoLaps — Georgia Verlin
🏅 5 Open — Cam Dempster
Phil Hunt was then invited back up to present the Angela Brammar Trophy to the player with the best overall aggregate.
Congratulations to Section 4's Darcy King on an outstanding season! 👏🏆
Callum Davey then took the floor to say a few words, thanking the club and, most importantly, the members who came along and supported the teams throughout the season, and especially those who helped get them over the line earlier that day.
Matt then finished up by saying this would be his last presentation as President, thanking everyone for their support, help and friendship throughout his time at the helm. Matt also finished by wishing all the fathers in the room a very happy Father's Day for tomorrow.
And with that, we officially enter the break before the Summer Season kicks off on October 10th.
Of course, the celebrations didn't end there…
A good number of the crew kicked on afterwards, with a few rounds of shots at the bar before the festivities moved into town for further celebrations.
Early reports suggest some members were still out around 3am. No surprises there. 🍻😂
Congratulations to everyone on a fantastic Winter Season. We'll catch you all very soon…
IT'S COMING HOME! 🏆🏆
💛🖤
