Finals made a triumphant return in the Gippsland League.
Crowds flocked to Morwell and Traralgon at the weekend to see the first major-league finals series in three years.
Idyllic conditions made for some attractive football, while those wishing to get a tan were also blessed with sunshine and radiant skies.
The conditions complement all the small nuances that go toward creating the finals stage: the heightened sense of importance, the hustle and bustle of sharing change rooms with opposition clubs, the well wishes exchanged between supporters, even special Gippsland League branded padding on the goal posts – something only brought out for special occasions.
It just made you think “I want to be out there”.
In the wash-up, Wonthaggi progressed to set-up a South Gippsland showdown against Leongatha, and Traralgon lived to fight another day after prevailing in a Sunday thriller.
Regardless of how your club fared, you surely enjoyed a better ending to the weekend than this writer. You know it isn’t your day when you park behind a grandstand and a football still goes through your windscreen.
WONTHAGGI defeated Sale in a fast-flowing game.
The Power overcame a sluggish start to win 12.7 (79) to 9.9 (63)
The Magpies burst out of the blocks, scoring a number goals early in the piece through Jarrod Freeman, Brad Dessent and Tom Campbell. Wonthaggi however did not panic, and clawed their way back into the contest, to go into quarter time only eight points down.
Power forward Andrew Murray was causing headaches inside 50, and kicked three goals in the first quarter.
After such a quick start, the contest tightened up in the second. Wonthaggi added three goals to one, and went into the main break ahead by one straight kick.
The third quarter ended up being the deciding one, as the Power took control, with Troy Harley and Jarryd Blair in pretty much everything.
Harley, who kicked seven for the day, kicked four in a row during the third, while Blair set up a number of scoring opportunities.
Wonthaggi had their tails up at the last change, having kicked five goals to one for the term and keeping the Magpies to just two goals since quarter time in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
Understandably, Sale players were frustrated by the situation, but were told in no uncertain terms by coach Jack Johnstone during the three-quarter time break to focus their energy on the ball and not on decisions going against them.
With a 28-point deficit to overcome, the Magpies were instructed to “be brave” in the last quarter and not resort to kicking down the line.
Sale did respond in the last, and a goal to Jesse Collins at the 22-minute mark cut the margin back to 16 points.
At that stage, the general feeling at Morwell Recreation Reserve was ‘one more and it’s game on’.
Unfortunately for the Magpies that one more did not come, and Wonthaggi was able to run out the clock.
An injury to the Power’s Mitch Hayes at the seven-minute mark left him worse for wear, and effectively took the ‘sting’ out of the contest once he was stretchered off.
Harley ended up best on ground, followed by Blair, Murray, Aiden Lindsay, Kyle Reid and Steven Scott.
Best for Sale was Jack Leslie, Mitch Bown, Shannen Lange, Cooper Whitehill, Ryan Pendlebury and Daine McGuinness.
The Magpies were without Kane Martin, who it is hoped would make a return. In a 16-point defeat, the two goals you bank on Martin kicking most weeks would have surely provided some difference.
Speaking post-game, Blair drove home the message that “working hard makes it easy”.
He counted his team’s ability to go the full 120 minutes, and attention to small details as elements that “stack up”.
Blair also commended his players for their adaptability, going from training on a boggy track at Wonthaggi to playing well on a hard surface in Morwell.
The Power toasted their victory with dinner at the local golf club on the drive home.
Wonthaggi very nearly made it a double, with their Reserves a tad unlucky not to win the Qualifying Final.
A number of misses from close range proved costly, as only four points separated them from Maffra with two minutes left in the game.
The Eagles won the next clearance and kicked the sealing goal courtesy of Max Gravener.
Sale also won its Reserves final in a thrilling eliminator against Morwell.
The Tigers held a slender lead midway through the final term, before consecutive goals to Kane Russell gave the Magpies victory.
TRARALGON won its Elimination Final.
The Maroons held off a determined Morwell, winning 13.6 (84) to 9.12 (66) at Terry Hunter Oval.
While the quarter-by-quarter scores may have suggested Traralgon had the game under control for the entire match, this was certainly not the case.
Truthfully, the Tigers dominated possession for large portions of the game, and certainly had enough chances to win it.
Traralgon burst out of the blocks, kicking five goals to none in the first quarter.
Despite the ominous start, Morwell steadied and methodically chipped away at the deficit.
Although they didn’t kick a goal until the 16- minute mark of the second, the Tigers went into the main break only 22 points adrift.
Morwell pressed on in the third, in a quarter that was highlighted by a courageous mark to Tyler Brown running back with the flight.
Tristen Waack took a number of telling grabs around the ground for the Tigers, as his crumbing goal cut the margin to just 14 points at the 18-minute mark.
A follow-up free kick to Josh Galea saw him drill the ball inside 50 to Brandon McDonald, continuing Morwell’s momentum.
However, as became the story of the second half, Traralgon pegged goals back against the run of play.
A major to Tate Marsh a few seconds before three quarter time gave the Maroons a 20-point lead at the last change.
Traralgon playing coach Jake Best then kicked a long-range set shot two minutes into the final term, and at that stage, the game looked to have only one winner.
But they breed them tough at Tiger Land, and Morwell just refused to give in.
Back-to-back goals from the left boot of Nathan Noblett saw the Tigers right back in the hunt with plenty of time left.
McDonald then made it three in a row, and suddenly, Morwell was only seven points down and the quarter was only nine minutes old.
Traralgon key forward Brett Eddy kicked a steadier for the home side, and as the quarter drew out, time eventually became the Tigers’ greatest enemy.
As the clock ticked well past red time, Matt Northe, standing in as Traralgon captain for the injured Dylan Loprese, found some space to take a mark goal side, and kicked the sealer from close range, fittingly, in front of the Pud Northe Bar.
Northe ended the match with three goals, while Eddy kicked four. Tye Hourigan was best-on-ground, along with Conor Little, Sam Hallyburton and Adam Jaensch.
Haydn Hector was a notable absence for Traralgon, although he was the runner on the day.
Morwell, beaten but by no means defeated, found good contributions from Ryan Hearn, Brown, Waack, Max Linton, Tyler Hillier and Cody Macdonald.
The Tigers won plenty of admirers this season, and coach-in-waiting Boyd Bailey now takes over a group that looks as though it will only get better.
From a neutral observers’ view, the young Tigers certainly don’t appear to be a team that overachieved by making finals this season, and if trends are anything to go by, another 40 or so games into some of the Morwell players could have them just about primed to take the competition by storm in a few years’ time.
While a finals qualification showed significant growth, arguably the greatest display of how far Morwell came was by the fact a lot of players rose from being virtual unknowns to almost household names within Gippsland League circles.
If you said to someone in preseason: Morwell has players like Tristen Waack, Nathan Noblett, Cody Macdonald and Sam Walsh, there is a good chance most people would have responded with ‘who are they?’
Everyone knows who they are now.
