It’s Preliminary Final weekend for Premier Division with Pennant Hills taking on St George for a place in the grand final next Sunday.
Pennant Hills Demons vs St George Dragons – Henson Park - Sunday 2.30pm
Don’t these two teams love playing each other in finals. After meeting in a Qualifying Final and Preliminary Final in 2014 and another Preliminary Final in 2013, the Demons and Dragons will once again do battle in the second last Premier Division game of the year.
Pennant Hills may have lost last weekends 2nd Semi Final to East Coast but they lost no supporters on the way as they pushed the premiership favourites all the way to the end to only go down by 12 points. The Demons led at the half time break by two points and will now have the belief they can beat the Eagles if they reach the grand final.
First though, they must get past St George who were ultra impressive last week in knocking out last years premiers, Manly Warringah, at Henson Park. The Dragons led at every break and broke the game open in the third quarter kicking seven goals to the Giants’ one to seal a spot in the Preliminary Final. Declan Donohue starred up forward kicking five goals and will be an important player for the Dragons this week.
The Demons have won both encounters against the Dragons this season. They met in Round 1 at Mike Kenny Oval where the Demons started their season off well with a 29 point win. The next meeting was at Olds Park in a cracking game in Round 15 where the Dragons, down by 33 points at quarter time, nearly stormed home to grab victory, going down by 5 points in the end.
KEY MATCHUP: Aaron Crisfield, Matt Carey & Ranga Ediriwickrama vs Jake Brown, Eli Prescott & Brayden Kilpatrick
This week I see the key matchup(s) to be between the Demons experienced trio of Carey, Crisfield and Ediriwickrama and the young Dragons brigade of Brown, Kilpatrick and Prescott. The Dragons youngsters have showed they are up to the pressures of Premier Division and will enjoy the challenge of taking on some of the leagues best forwards. The three Demons forwards will look to use all their finals experience in shaking their defenders to make an impact on the scoreboard.
Prediction: In a close contest, the Demons will reach their third consecutive grand final. Demons by 8 points
Last Modified on 18/09/2015 17:48
