Gippsland Times |
SALE won its way to the Gippsland League football grand final with a 34-point win over Maffra in the Saturday's second semi-final played in wet and greasy conditions at Moe.
The Magpies won 8.11 (58) to 3.7 (25).
Maffra's score was its lowest against Sale in this league, marginally ahead of the Eagles' lowest ever score against the Magpies of 3.5 (23) recorded in 1915 in the old Gippsland Football League.
The Eagles' score was the fourth lowest in a Gippsland League second semi-final, behind Wonthaggi's 15 in 1999, Moe's 23 in 1964 and Bairnsdale's 24 in 1968.
Both teams were strengthened by the inclusion of key players with Sale welcoming back coach Matt Ferguson, Justin McLay, Jacob Schuback, Kane Martin and Brenton Rees. With Gippsland Power's TAC Cup season coming to an end the previous weekend, Maffra included Alex Carr and Lachie Channing, but were without coach Hayden Burgiel because of injury.
Winston Gieschen played his 100th senior game of the Eagles.
With light rain persisting for three quarters, it was always going to be that the side that worked the hardest would win the contest - Sale worked the hardest.
It was the first time this season that the Magpies had played in wet conditions and it took some time for them to adjust.
However, having had a week's rest, the Magpies had fresher legs and were more disciplined than the Eagles who played from behind and gave away too many free kicks.
The Eagles matched the Magpies early with Ben Coleman and Kelvin Porter giving drive from the midfield, but generally were unable to penetrate the tight Sale defence. Both faded as game progressed with Coleman appearing to be carrying an injury.
The teams scored 11 points between in the first quarter them equalled the lowest opening term in a Gippsland League second semi-final of Wonthaggi and Traralgon from 1999.
The low scoring first half was an even affair and with both defences on top, only one goal separated the two sides at half-time. Both had made plenty of mistakes in the slippery conditions resulting in many turnovers.
Sale got on top in the third quarter with a higher tally of inside 50s and kicked 3.5 behinds to Maffra's two behinds, giving the Magpies a 27-point lead at the final break. The lead proved to be too much for the Eagles to claw back as they appeared to tire in the wet conditions.
When the rain finally cleared at the start of final quarter, Sale added another three goals to Maffra's two.
The Magpies were led brilliantly by Ferguson, who kicked 4.2 behinds, more than Maffra's total score, and also set-up two additional Sale goals.
At the other end of the ground, Andrew Quirk nullified Maffra goal kicking machine Darren Sheen, who kicked his solitary goal from a snapshot. Jordan Dessent and Joel Wallace shut down the other Eagles' goal kickers Daniel Bedggood and Adrian Burgiel who could only manage to kick one major between them.
In the big man department Sale's Jack Lipman gave a superb display of decisive centre bounce hit outs and took numerous marks around the ground.
Brenton Rees and Justin Mitrevski each kicked valuable late goals which put the result out of Maffra's reach.
Maffra defenders Joel Lambourn, Daniel O'Brien and Ben Batahla were solid contributors for the disappointing Eagles.
With another week's break, Sale has strengthened its favouritism to win back-to-back premierships for the second time in premier league football, the previous being in 1954 and 1955.
Tigers survive
MORWELL set-up a preliminary final against Maffra this Sunday with a 17-point win over Wonthaggi in the first semi-final.
The Tigers led by six points at half-time on Sunday at Traralgon before kicking four goals to two in the third term to set-up the win.
During the final term, the Tigers were happy to keep possession of the ball during the final term, with the Power kicking the only goal.
Morwell won 8.17 (65) to 7.6 (48), but could have won by more, only kicking eight goals from 25 scoring shots.
Tom Crosby had the better of the ruck contests for Morwell, with Adam Bailey, Joel Soutar and Jeff Ryan controlling proceedings in the midfield.
For Wonthaggi, Jack Blair was solid in defence, while Aaron Ware also worked hard to keep his side's season alive.
