by Jim Gordon
BEULAH V SEA LAKE NANDALY TIGERS
If the first two semi finals are anything to go by, the Mallee Football League should expect a bumper crowd at Underbool this week to see Beulah take on Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers in the Preliminary Final. The winner to go through to meet Ouyen United in the Grand Final the following week at Woomelang.
Beulah will be all out to regain lost pride after their disappointing loss to Ouyen United in the Second Semi Final and the Tigers will fancy themselves after accounting for Hopetoun in the First Semi Final. All of a sudden the Preliminary Final takes on an unexpected level of importance as we have two sides that will be desperate for a chance to knock off the Demons.
This season the score between the Blues and the Tigers is two-one in favour of Beulah. After Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers shocked the reining premiers in the first round, Beulah came back in the two games since then to easily account for the Tigers in both matches.
Finals football is another story and for the Blues to get up again, they are going to have to have a real turnaround in form as they were dismal against the Demons last week after having the bye the week before.
Their big name players were nowhere to be seen last week. Apart from Tyler Lehmann in defence, Gearoid Meade and possibly Kim Hallam in the ruck, Beulah had no-one who could claim that they even matched it with their opponent, much less beat them on the day.
Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers however, had a great win against the Devils in the First Semi and will be all out to get over the Blues and tackle the might of Ouyen United in the Grand Final after running the Demons close in the final home and away game.
Mallee Football League equal medal winner Col Durie was a stand out against Hopetoun and he will come up against one of the other medal winners in Dale Shannon who was one of the many Beulah players who must lift this week after a quiet day last week.
At least Shannon will have Scott Smith and Gareth Hose to back him up so that if Durie starts to fire, Beulah might get by through a sheer weight of numbers.
Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers will rely on Jarrod Alderton and Luke Martin in defence. One of them will most likely pick up David King who will be looking to score goals this week after a quiet day against Ouyen United. The last time Beulah played against the Tigers, King was in his best early season goal kicking form with seven for the day and was well supported by Peter Lehmann who grabbed three goals.
The Beulah backline will need to keep an eye on all of the Tiger forwards as they like to share the goals around rather than rely on one or two to do the scoring. In their win against Hopetoun, Daniel Carmicheal scored three goals, but Durie, Matt Elliott, John Foskett and Liam Barry all score two and there were several players with one gaol for the day.
In what should be a tough and tight game early, Beulah could be just too good for the Tigers and should win. It might just have been the wake up call they needed after the bye and then the horror of last week.
Last Modified on 07/09/2011 14:06
