Donald who came off a narrow loss last week against ladder leaders St Arnaud started their finals campaign against Birchip-Watchem in fine fashion scoring their first goal of the game in the opening minutes. Seamus Young took out the league’s leading goal kicker award drew first blood for the Royal Blues after marking strongly and making no mistake.
Young was on the end of some nice passages of play from the Donald midfield and he added two more goals to his tally by quarter time. Birchip-Watchem trailed the Royals by 20-points at the first break and was only able to register minor scores.
In the second term it was again Young who got the Donald side going as his leading and strong marking was delight to watch and the Bulls backline could not contain the Donald full forward. Finally for the Bulls, Messer kicked the first of their three second quarter goals.
The Bulls slowly narrowed the gap on Donald as the contest got a little closer but late in the term the Donald side was again able to kick away to a handy lead by half time. Seamus Young with six goals to half time for Donald was causing the Bulls brains-trust some headaches as they tried to shut down his dominance. League medal winner Luke Fisher was also doing some damage around the ground gaining many possessions and leading from the front and down back Pearce was able to turn back many forward moves from the Bulls. Birchip-Watchem looked a real chance to level up or even overtake the Royal Blues mid- term but the steadying goals from Young put paid to their chances.
After the half time break the Donald side moved straight back into action and through Haddow extended their lead over Birchip-Watchem in the opening minute of the quarter.
This appeared to fire-up the Bulls who made a strong challenge to pull back the Donald lead. Messer was again the person to deliver for the Bulls and when Castellano kicked his only goal for the day the Bulls were on the way back. Messer was again in the thick of things and the Donald side was having difficulty in restricting his ability to pop up within range and he delivered on two occasions to make it three goals for the term to put the Bulls within three points deep into the term. With time in the quarter all but running out Donald pushed the ball forward where Jackson Hogan snapped a goal right on siren time to have the Royal Blues lead by nine points at the final change.
In the opening minute of the final quarter it was Jackson Hogan who again snapped an important goal for the Donald side to extend their lead. Being fifteen points in arrears the Birchip-Watchem coach Tom Carland brought the margin back under two goals and it was game on. In the following minutes scoring for either side dried up as both backlines were working overtime turning back forward moves before the Royals broke through the Bulls backline where Wyatt gave his side a much needed edge over the Bulls.
The Bulls who could see their season drifting away made one finally rally for a berth in the prelim final and Barnard and Gilmore gave them that chance bringing the margin to under a goal but time was working against them. All players were showing signs that the game had taken a fair toll on them as the game had been played at a high level for all four quarters but in the end it would be Donald who will advance through to the Preliminary Final with a four point win over a Bulls side who can hold their heads high as they gave it their best shot to just fall short by just four points. Finals are the place where the better players go up a cog and lift their game and the first semi- final was witness to this again as the stars of our competition again stood tall for their respective clubs and this will continue over the course of the next three weeks of our finals series.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM SATURDAYS SENIOR FIRST SEMI FINAL
Best players for Donald: Daniel Pearce (four great quarters) Seamus Young (six first half goals) Geordan McLoughlan, Ryan Leeder, Luke Fisher and Glenn Wyatt.
Goals: Seamus Young 6, Jackson Hogan 2, Glenn Wyatt, Brody Haddow and Darcy Harrison 1 each.
Best for Birchip-Watchem: Zac Holmes (Tireless Ruck work all day) Tom Carland (Led from the front) Paul Messer (5 Goals) Dale Hinkley, Jake Noonan and Matt Gilmore.
Goals: Paul Messer 5, Matt Gilmore 2, Daniel Castellano, Tom Carland and John Barnard 1.
Reserves Donald 7-12=54 def Birchip-Watchem 6-8=44
Under 16’s Birchip-Watchem 13-8=86 def Charlton 3-3=21
Under 13’s Donald 8-5=53 def St Arnaud 7-6=48
Next week at Wycheproof
Under 13’s Boort v Birchip-Watchem 9.30 am
Under 16’s Wedderburn v St Arnaud 10.55 am
Reserves St Arnaud v Wycheproof-Narraport 12.30 pm
Seniors St Arnaud v Charlton 2.30 pm.
Last Modified on 31/08/2015 17:25
