Western Premier League: Orange Waratahs defeat Panorama FC 2-1 in grand final

When it all sinks in, 2022's Western Premier League grand final will go down as one of the most fiery ever but in the end Waratahs FC are the champions after a 2-1 victory over Panorama FC.

When the 83^rd minute struck, Waratahs midfielder Jack Sinclair received his second yellow card and consequently a red. It left the home side with nine-men at a 1-1 scoreline. Walking into the sheds, Sinclair was joining team-mate Craig Sugden who had been sent off earlier.

'Tahs looked like they were done.

But beware the super-sub, Adam Scimone.

87 minutes in, Guy Burgess found his coach on the right wing.

Scimone cut inside with plenty of space and with only the keeper to beat, hit the ball into the top left corner to bring the Waratahs crowd to their feet.

The experienced leader then ran to the sideline, with hand to his ear in the direction of the opposition fans.

He found his team-mates eventually though, to celebrate what would be the winning goal in a phenomenal match.

"I thought I would come on and just cause some havoc," Scimone said.

"It just fell to me, I just hit it and didn't think about anything.

"You can't script that, I was confident all week. There was positive vibes, Tuesday training was awesome, Thursday was about having fun, getting penalties and all that business done.

"My boys have heart, we went down to nine-men and that only pushed us further."

In the first half, both sides fired off chances but couldn't find the final touch as they ran into the sheds at nil-all.

Panorama captain Paul Long broke the deadlock after 64 minutes, finishing a counter-attacking play with a beautiful left foot strike from the edge of the box.

Adam Kelly equalled the score only minutes later with a shot from almost halfway hitting the top left corner in extraordinary style. In a sign of the intensity of the game, Kelly was given a yellow card straight after the goal.

Then, in the 69^th minute Waratahs' goal-scoring freak Sugden was handed his second yellow card for a challenge and given an early bath.

To give an insight into how intense the grand final had now become, fans came to verbal blows behind the Panorama goal before tensions were eventually simmered.

Sinclair's red card then followed later before the sensational Scimone winner was struck to deliver a home grand final win for the men in blue.

The referee's duties weren't done at full-time though when 'Tahs goal-keeper Adam Brackenridge was handed a red card after the whistle.

As expected, winning coach Scimone was speechless at his side's resolve, before complimenting Panorama on a quality fixture.

"Full credit to Pano, they pushed us all the way all season but to finish like that was bloody unbelievable," he said.

In a disappointing end, Panorama coach Ricky Guihot was measured in his summation of the game.

"That's football, there has to be a winner and loser," he said.

"We didn't take the opportunities when they were presented to us, that was the problem. At 1-0 we really needed the second goal, it would've killed them off even it they kept all their players on the field."

With the score even at half-time, Guihot believed it was simply tired legs that allowed the entertainment to start.

"It's the back end of what's been a long season, I've had these boys going since October ... legs started to get heavy and that's when it started to open up," he said.

"I don't think it was the goal (that opened it up), it was just fatigue - it's a heavy pitch out there, it takes a toll."

While his side couldn't come away with victory, the coach added his troops left nothing out there.

"They gave it everything, I couldn't ask for much more," he said.

"I said to them when I went in there 'are you all stuffed, are you all tired?', they said 'yeah', so what more can I ask for?

"If you can go in there and say I gave it everything I had for 90 minutes then there's not much more you can do."

ORANGE WARATAHS 2 (Adam Kelly, Adam Scimone) defeated PANORAMA FC 1 (Paul Long)

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