Preliminary Final Wrap up
Preliminary Final day for 3 of our teams. Our Senior Men, C Grade Netballers and U15 Netballers.
The day started off with our U15’s. After a fantastic win over Werribee two weeks prior, the ladies were full of optimism, but also knew that Werribee would play a physical brand of Netball. Our ladies came out firing. Some great drives and movement around the court helped our ladies take an early lead. Werribee fought back with everything they had, but with some great defensive plays and moving the ball with great precision, allowed the ladies to keep them at bay, leading at every change. With the final hooter sounding, our girls finished 11 goals up, securing a Grand Final berth. The ladies will now take on East Geelong which will prove to be a great battle.
Next on the cards was our C Grade ladies, who took on a fancied Inverleigh side (minor premiers). It was always going to be a tall order, but in finals, you never just know. Our ladies starting ok, didn’t allow Inverleigh to push away, keeping their lead manageable. Some decisions not going our way, allowed Inverleigh to rebound and drive down the court, keeping our defensive ladies on their toes. Some strong defensive efforts allowed opportunities for our wings and centres to drive the ball back down the court, for the shooters to put the ball at the bottom of the net. We just couldn’t take our chances when they presented, with Inverleigh leading at every change. The ladies kept pressing, but it just wasn’t to be, going down by 10 goals. A fantastic effort to push the minor premiers all the way. They should be proud as we are in their efforts all season.
Last team to play was our Senior men. They too had come up against minor premiers East Geelong and everyone in the league thought they were the fancied team to make the GF and possibly win the GF. But as people did in 2019, writing our lads off early, this provided more fuel to the fire to win and play our archrivals Inverleigh in the final. The 1st quarter was a frantic quarter, with neither side being able to jump away cleanly, making it a very hot, contested game. East Geelong leading the 1st change by 3pts. Our lads managed to hold East goalless in the 2nd, with East not taking their opportunity in front, allowed us to take the lead by 2pts. East returned the favour, holding us scoreless in the 3rd, taking a 4pt lead. Step in Ron Pilgrim and Jake Brauman with an inspiring speech, had the lads revved up. East jumped early with a couple of quick goals, but again, the big man Kieran Fulton marking everything in his path, held true and kicked goals for all angles, bagging another 5 goal haul. Some sublime defensive efforts from both the backline and mids, ensured that East could not extend the lead. This allowed our rebound football to take charge with some delivery into the forward stunning East Geelong players and supporters. Our lads kicking 6 goals to 3 in the last, winning their way to the Grand Final by 11 points. Making it, back to back Grand Final births for our Seniors.
We now turn our attentions to our Netball teams: U13’s (Sat @8:15), U15’s (Sat @9:15am), U17’s (Sat @10:15pm) and our Senior Footballers (Sat @ 2:10pm). Good luck to all teams. We know you will do yourself, the team and the club proud. Let’s make sure we get down and support our players.
