Blake Metcalf-Holt
WOODSIDE ended Heyfield’s North Gippsland football season in the most serious of ways.
The Wildcats won Sunday’s first semi-final by 65 points, 13.11 (89) to 3.6 (24).
Played at Glengarry, the wind was ferocious, but Woodside withstood that deterrence to run home a clear winner.
Out of the gate, it was still going to take some time to get use to and given that each side’s season was on the line only meant that a true battle was going to come to fruition, giving no inch either way and no room for failure.
Little dents were seen on the scoreboard during this opening term with midfielders tussling about and difficulty shown extending the ball marginally forward afield.
The Kangaroos managed to lay the opening punch that would give them the boosted confidence they would need to knock-off a difficult outfit like Woodside.
The first quarter concluded, through all its turbulence, with Heyfield ahead 1.2 (8) to 0.1 (1). That was a far cry from the Roos’ opening quarter blitz of eight goals to nothing against Sale City the week prior in the elimination final, but for all who watched on given how the day had played out so far, this could just be the standard that was to be throughout.
The Wildcats ignited themselves out of the quarter-time break, nailing the opening three goals of the second term to push ahead by 12 points, but Heyfield triggered a desperate reply with the game getting away from albeit still early.
The Wildcats lifted within their group with a sense of bravado and blew the Roos out of the water while everyone else watching on still thought they had a crack.
Finishing with the final three goals of the first half, penetrating the ball through the constant wind, Woodside entered the main break with a comfortable yet only building 6.4 (40) to 2.3 (15) lead.
The Roos did all they could coming out for the second half, aggressively attacking and desperately trying to expose weakness in the experienced Woodside group.
While it could only put through minor scores, unable to capture the full amount of points on each push, Woodside would turn around and only in a few goes send through goals that would break the spirit of Heyfield.
Outscoring its opponents three goals to none and pushing the margin to 45 points – considering the conditions and an otherwise comeback for the ages, Woodside only had next week to look forward to at this point.
The Wildcats added four goals to conclude, not while Heyfield saw through one final major to cap off their season in the best way possible.
Despite the dominance and sizeable victory, Woodside only featured four individual goal scorers with Jai Williams the main attractions with a bag of seven, Daniel Farmer (three goals), Michael O’Sullivan (two) and Rowan Missen.
Mark Collison continues an exceptional finals run with a second consecutive best-on-ground for the Wildcats, followed by Cameron Whiteoak, Ryan Foat, Missen, Williams and Joshua Morgan.
Thomas Marchesi performed admirably in defeat for Heyfield, supported by Kail Hole, Robert McMillan, Marcus Sundermann, Brayden Woodland and Max Van Der Zwart.
Woodside now play Yallourn-Yallourn North in the preliminary final this Saturday at Heyfield for a spot in the grand final.
Bombers bash Jets
TRARALGON-Tyers United defeated Yallourn-Yallourn North in the second semi-final on Saturday, 12.15 (87) to 4.5 (29), to advance to the grand final for the third successive season and a shot at back-to-back premierships.
For either side running out on Stephenson Park, Sale, it was understood that there would be some added factors – with heavy winds carrying over from the past fortnight.
After a significant and down-to-the-wire finish against Woodside the week prior, YYN entered with all the confidence in the world it could knock of the minor premiers. That was shown to be the case, as the siren rung to issue the commencement of the second week of finals and the potential top two sides went at it.
Rolling over from their weeks of steady and fine performance, the Jets got the jump on TTU, fronting their opponent directly with no faze and beating them on the way to leading 3.2 (20) to 1.2 (8) following a Dean MacDonald goal past the midway point of the first quarter.
It looked as though on-lookers were ready for another close affair between the two clubs before tragedy struck.
Following what would eventually be YYN’s penultimate goal of the entire day, the ball was thrown up only for Jets’ ruckman Ben Morrow falling to the ground. Play was halted for more than five minutes while Morrow was stretchered off with an apparent season-ending knee injury.
The shocking and unexpected occurrence left the YYN group rocked and forced magnets to shift across the board to accommodate and combat a TTU unit ready to pounce and who offered two imposing ruckmen in its line-up. Added to that, YYN captain MacDonald also exited the ground holding his arm and would not return.
While still recovering, the Bombers aimed and now sensed it was their time to lift. TTU nailed the next two goals into the extended opening term to conclude the game tied 20-all.
Jacob Albanese gave the Bombers their first lead since the first few minutes of the match and was then followed by James Jacobsen out the back of the pack that began a dominant quarter.
Unable to break anything down the line, the Jets were stopped in their tracks by a hungry and dangerous TTU unit with its success during this stretch only hindering YYN’s energy across the ground and lifting the prevailing side’s spirits.
Following the Morrow incident, TTU nailed the next seven goals up to halftime to place itself in a favourable 8.4 (52) to 3.2 (20) position.
The wind intensified in the second half, turning the game even more so into a close-quarters affair.
YYN did attempt to crash and bash its way back into the game, beginning to pick up its intensity to surmount what had TTU rolling. However, the Jets were still fighting through what Mother Nature had stamped on this game and despite maintaining a majority of the ball in the opening stretch of the second half, still couldn’t complete their efforts.
While the Jets held the Bombers goal-less during the third term, they couldn’t do enough to close the gap and still looked at a 31-point deficit at the final break.
Whatever, hope was there to begin the final quarter had vanished and YYN simply hoped to see out the quarter, as the Bombers added four unanswered goals to finish still in strong form.
Michael Jacobsen was awarded best afield for the winners, followed by ruckman Frazar Brouns (two goals), William Curtain, Guy Sinclair, Albanese (two) and Trent Hourigan.
Jai Massese stood tall in defeat followed by Dylan Brooks, Darcy Shellcot, Mitch Luck who swung into the ruck, Riley Byrne and Callum Robertson.
