Today's footy results

SFL Seniors 
Qualifying Final: New Norfolk 14.10 (94) d Lindisfarne 8.11 (59)
Elimination Final: Huonville 14.12 (96) d Brighton: 10.8 (68)

SFL Reserves
Qualifying Final: New Norfolk 7.13 (55) d Brighton 5.7 (37)
Elimination Final: Huonville 9.14 (68) d  Lindisfarne 4.4 (28)

GAMES NEXT WEEK
1st Semi-Final: Lindisfarne v Huonville at Anzac Park
2nd Semi-Final: Claremont v New Norfolk at Abbotsfield Park

National market for frozen fruits of the valley

Richard Clark at the raspberry farm
in New Norfolk yesterday.

THE Clark family of Westerway will be the first growers in Australia to adopt new technology which will allow them to supply locally-grown frozen berries to customers on a large scale. The Clark's Westerway Raspberry Farm was yesterday announced by Coles managing director John Durkan and Premier of Tasmania Will Hodgman as the first small business in the state to receive a Coles Nurture Fund grant.

The $260,000 grant will enable the Clark family to purchase and install new technology in the form of an Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) freezer tunnel which is not currently in use in Australia for berries. The freezer will be located at Westerway. The business is based at New Norfolk and Westerway and already grows raspberry vartieties as ingredients for jams, desserts and sauces but has not been able to supply large-scale frozen berries in retail packs until now.

Mr Durkan said he was delighted Coles customers would soon be able to buy locally-grown frozen raspberries. “We were really impressed with Westerway’s vision to innovate and take on a long-standing challenge in the industry to supply frozen berries,” Mr Durkan said. “The Clarks supply some of the ingredients for great Australian products we see on our shelves but we would like to work with them directly for the first time to bring Australian frozen raspberries to consumers and help us to reduce imports.”

“We have already removed imports from our Coles Brand frozen vegetable range thanks to Tasmanian growers who supply Simplot. Now with the help of the Clark family, we hope to support another fantastic Tasmanian-grown offer for Australian consumers,” Mr Durkan said.

Richard Clark said he was excited to soon be able to supply Tasmanian-grown frozen berries on a large scale for the first time. “Our family grows beautiful raspberries here in Tasmania on our farm in the Derwent Valley. We are excited, with the help of Coles and the Coles Nurture Fund, to soon be able to freeze these berries at the peak of their summer freshness to supply Australian customers all year round,” Mr Clark said.

Coles managing director John Durkan, left, with Richard Clark,
Sandra Clark, Tom Clark and Sarah Gatenby-Clark.

Premier Will Hodgman said the partnership between Coles and the Westerway Raspberry Farm was a ground-breaking first that would put Tasmanian-grown berries in supermarket freezers around the nation. "This is a massive vote of confidence in Tasmania’s agricultural sector, which will create jobs and boost sales," Mr Hodgman said.

With the support of Coles, the Westerway Raspberry Farm will install the only berry freezer tunnel in use in Australia. It will use liquid nitrogen to individually snap-freeze each berry. "As a result, Australians will now be able to choose fresh frozen Tasmanian raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, blueberries and mixed berries, rather than imported frozen berries," Mr Hodgman said. "Tasmanian growers already produce all of the vegetables used in Coles’ frozen vegetable line and it’s fantastic to see that Tasmania will once again be feeding the nation, this time with frozen berries."

The premier said five full-time jobs would be created and possibly more as the Clarks look to new markets for their premium products.

Businesses with less than $25 million in annual revenue and 50 or fewer full-time employees can apply for the next round of funding from the Coles Nurture Fund as from September 25. More information is available at www.coles.com.au/nurturefund

Today's footy finals fixture

SFL Week 1 Finals Fixture

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5

At Boyer Oval, New Norfolk
Qualifying Final - Seniors: New Norfolk v Lindisfarne, 2pm
Qualifying Final - Reserves: Brighton v New Norfolk, 11.30am
Elimination Final - Colts: Dodges Ferry v Brighton, 9.30am

At Huonville
Elimination Final - Seniors: Huonville v Brighton, 2.30pm
Elimination Final - Reserves: Huonville v Lindisfarne, 10.30am
Qualifying Final - Colts: Sorell v Huonville, 12.30pm


TOMORROW - SUNDAY
STJFL Under 16 Preliminary Final: Lindisfarne v New Norfolk at KGV at 4.30pm

First week of footy finals previewed

SFL Season 2015
Finals Week 1
Previewed by Ben Harrison

Qualifying Final: New Norfolk v Lindisfarne  at Boyer
New Norfolk will enter somewhat uncharted waters by playing in the first week of the SFL finals series tomorrow (Saturday) when they host Lindisfarne at Boyer. Both teams would be very keen to secure a win and take up the challenge of meeting Claremont the week after for a place in the SFL Grand Final on September 26 at KGV.

Lindisfarne seems to have a list of contributors right across the board and in recent weeks have been finishing well on the scoreboard and showing better form since their last visit to Boyer where the Eagles put on a dominant display to win big. However, winning finals at Boyer is not an unknown to the Two Blues who did just that in the 2012 semi-final, but this time it will take a contribution from every player to challenge the Eagles powerhouse.

It appears that the Eagles will have to challenge for the 2015 SFL title without the reigning William Leitch Medalist and playing coach Caden Wilson who has suffered what looks like a season ending injury. Even so the likes of Gardam and Clayton will take a lot of stopping up forward and the wily finals experience of Roger Belcher may prove invaluable once again in this game.

Player to watch: Nic Clayton (New Norfolk)

Prediction: New Norfolk by 35 points.

Elimination Final: Huonville v Brighton at Huonville
A cut-throat clash is set to take place at Huonville in the elimination final in front of what is expected to be a big crowd between two sides which only met two weeks ago at the same venue with the result
comprehensively in favour of the Huonville Lions.

The Lions return from Boyer after a disappointing performance and the Robins had to dust off the feathers for finals action after initially looking like they would miss the September action as they take losing form into this game. It seems likely that if the Huonville midfield can get enough first use of the football it should be one-way traffic for the Lions as their forward line options are numerous.

It will take another big effort from the Arnolds and Callen Daly if Brighton are to remain competitive and make it to week two of the finals. Other than a poor performance last weekend at Boyer, Huonville has been in really good form and should keep that up to prove to have a little too much class for the Robins and give themselves another crack at staying in the competition for 2015.

Player to watch: James Lange (Huonville)

Prediction: Huonville by 20 points.

Friday frost warning

Bureau of Meteorology
Tasmania

Frost Warning
for the Upper Derwent Valley, North West Coast, Midlands and East Coast forecast districts

Issued at 9:28pm on Thursday 3 September 2015.

Please be aware 
Temperatures at ground level can be many degrees lower than those recorded by standard weather stations, especially in calm conditions with clear skies.

Frosts with temperatures down to -1 degree are forecast for Friday morning in parts of the North West Coast, Midlands, East Coast and Upper Derwent Valley forecast districts

No further warnings will be issued for this event.

Save the date: Mini-Field of Women

Click image to enlarge.

Claremont wins minor 2015 SFL premiership

SFL Season 2015
Round 18 reviewed by Ben Harrison

New Norfolk 15.14 (104) d Huonville 3.11 (29) 
At quarter time in this game where second played fourth it looked like a fairly even contest. However, as the game progressed the slow starting Eagle machine got moving and the Lions simply had no answers and their previously super-accurate forwards could not find their goal kicking radar.

After quarter time New Norfolk had kicked 13 goals to Huonville’s two and should they meet again this season Huonville coach Tim Lamprill will have to find some new ways to win the contested ball and also apply some scoreboard pressure … but that opportunity is still only a possibility.

Zeke Gardam and Nic Clayton both kicked four goals each for the Eagles and both players were clearly the Eagles’ prime movers for the day. For the Lions there were no multiple goal kickers and classy veteran James Lange tried hard all day to keep his team in the hunt to no avail.

New Norfolk won the reserves by 55 points.

Claremont 22.19 (151) d Brighton 11.6 (72) 
It's not very often that both clubs are delighted with the result after a game of footy, but that was the outcome at Pontville in the final round of SFL season 2015 after Brighton went down to Claremont. Claremont needed the win to officially secure the SFL minor premiership, while Brighton had set their sights on an unlikely win or hope for results elsewhere to go its way to play finals.

At the final siren it was celebrations for Claremont as a 79 point win delivered its first minor premiership since 1997, but as the results from other grounds arrived and it emerged that Hobart had shocked East Coast for the second time this season by three points the Robins joined in the celebrations.

Claremont won the reserves by 59 points.

New Norfolk 15.14 (104) d Huonville 3.11 (29) 
At quarter time in this game where second played fourth it looked like a fairly even contest. However, as the game progressed the slow starting Eagle machine got moving and the Huonville Lions simply had no answers and their previously super accurate forwards could not find their goal kicking radar. New Norfolk won the reserves by 55 points.

Cygnet 13.7 (85) d Sorell 6.7 (43) 
The celebrations at Cygnet have been few and far between this season, but they surely would have been “up and about” on Saturday following their dual victories over Sorell in their final fixture for the season at home in the Port. Cygnet won the reserves by 38 points.

Lindisfarne 17.16 (118) d Dodges Ferry 7.13 (55) 
Dodges Ferry fans must have felt a sense of deja vu in their final match of the season as in the same
fashion as last week they raced out of the blocks to lead by five goals against Lindisfarne at Shark Park. Then once again they simply went missing and for the next three quarters Lindisfarne kicked 17
goals. Lindisfarne won the reserves by 68 points.

Hobart 6.5 (41) d Brighton 4.14 (38)  
They say in football poor kicking really costs you and that was definitely the case for the East Coast
Bombers, who after sitting on top of the ladder after four rounds of the season will now miss the finals after going down to Hobart by three points at Lauderdale on Saturday. East Coast won the reserves by 34 points.