In a come from behind win over Donald the Birchip-Watchem Bulls have advanced to the North Central Football Leagues Preliminary Final at Donald in two weeks’ time.
In a low scoring match the Bulls who trailed by sixteen points at the final change and had only been able to kick four goals in the three earlier quarters and looked set to pack the gear away for 2016 but stranger things have happened and there was a complete reversal of their earlier form in the final term that got them over the line.
Donald who went into the game missing a couple of important players had the opportunity in the second quarter to get a good break on the Bulls but inaccuracy cost them dearly. Donald’s season is now over and you just wonder if the events of the past couple of weeks and a couple of key injuries finally took their toll on the playing group.
The Bulls like Donald had played a more defensive style of a game in the first three quarters and what can happen in a low scoring game is you only need to get it together for one quarter to get the desired result and this is what the Bulls was able to achieve in the final quarter with five goals to two goals that seen them advance to the prelim final with a five point margin.
In earlier games the Boort Magpies who were out on their feet and trailing by sixteen points at the final break, wanted the win badly and they done it in fine style in the last term where coach Nathan Gooding led from the front and lifted his players to kick four last quarter goals to win by ten points. The Magpies backline also did their job in the last term holding the Saints, who looked the better of the two sides in the first three quarter scoreless in the final term to end the St Arnaud side’s season.
Donald took out the thirds by thirty seven points over the Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers. The Tigers were only seven points down at quarter time but the Donald side gradually gained the upper hand to run out comfortable winners. Sea Lake Nandaly in their first season in the competition displayed plenty of potential and their young group showed that they will have a bright future going forward. Donald deserved their win an will advance to take on the loser of the St Arnaud v Charlton game from next weeks under sixteens match.
In the closest game of the day the St Arnaud Saints under thirteens got home over the Birchip-Watchem Bulls by just the one point. St Arnaud’s next match will be against either Boort or Donald who will contest next week’s second semi-final.
Donald v Birchip-Watchem
Both sides entered this game knowing that this could be their last game of the year and the desperation shown in the opening quarter by both sides indicated that neither side wanted to bow out in week one of the finals series. Birchip-Watchem was the first to get a major score with Lachie Foott who had been recalled to the senior side for his first senior match for the season after returning from a knee injury sustained in a preseason practice match.
Shortly after Foott’s goal the Bulls Spencer Aitkin kicked their second goal and at this point the Royal Blues had not registered a score. Donald’s first score, a goal to Charlie Murrie put Donald on the board, then Brent Gilmour received a fifty metre penalty placing him right in front of the big sticks and he was able to level the scores. Well into time-on Sam Allan gave the Bulls a one goal margin as they headed to the first stoppage in play. As the scoreboard had indicated by the low scoring in good conditions for football, there was no real clean passages of play and plenty of stoppages.
The second term produced a similar pattern of play in this term where Donald had the ball in their forward line for a fair portion of the quarter but failed to capitalise on the opportunities up forward resulting in a return of one goal five behinds, but it was sufficient to give them a lead of four points at half time with the Bulls only score for the quarter being a minor score. During the quarter there were some signs of physicality creeping into the game but there was nothing to serious enough to draw the attention of the officiating umpires and I guess the players new there limitations in getting involved in these minor scuffles.
With the long break behind them Donald through Bryan Beckham playing in his one hundredth game for the Royal Blues goaled to extend Donald’s lead to near two goals. Birchip-Watchem’s forward Brendan George kicked his first goal of the game to bring the margin back to under a goal in a game that had never produced any great breakaway by either side. Late in the quarter Donald veteran Ross Funcke kicked a team lifting goal and this inspired his team to lift nearing the end of the term. Donald again pushed forward where Chris Prockter who had been reasonably quiet marked strongly and kicked truly for a positive result to give the Royals a sixteen point lead heading to three quarter time. In a low scoring game the gap of sixteen points between the two sides was the biggest lead of the game and Donald would have went to the huddle feeling reasonably confident based on the low score kicked by the Bulls in the first three terms.
Looking down the barrel of defeat the Bulls who could only manage four goals in the first three quarters and only one since the opening term would have seen the job of getting a win requiring a huge change in their performance from the previous three quarters.
The Bulls were well aware of what was required and in the opening minutes of the final term Brendan George goaled twice to cut the margin back to under a goal. Donald through Seamus Young for his first goal steadied for the time being at about halfway into the final quarter but the Bulls found another avenue to goal with Atkinson and Wilson goaling to give the Bulls the lead by just three points. From the restart the ball went forward for the Bulls where George marked and put the lead out to nine points and with time counting down the Bulls believed they may just get to win their first final since 2008. Donald won the centre clearance and Dunstan marked and kicked for full points to bring the Bull’s lead back to under a goal, in the dying minutes the Bulls had a couple more opportunities for major scores but could only manage behinds, but it would be enough to get them a win and a spot in the prelim final in two weeks’ time. Donald who showed so much promise throughout the year and was in a battle with the Charlton Navy Blues for second spot for a large part of the year, lost the double chance in the final two weeks of the season and would be disappointed in departing the finals race in the opening week but when they look back there year has been very much an up and down year. For the Bulls they have been the form side of the competition over the last seven weeks winning six of their seven games and running into finals with form like this certainly puts you in the right frame of mind to take on all challengers throughout the finals series.
Best players for the Bulls: Tom Carland, Michael Monteith, Lochlan Sirett, Daniel Ratcliffe, Jake Noonan and Brendan George who was also their top goal kicker with four and three of those four goals coming in the final term which played a big part in the Bulls getting the win.
Best for Donald: Charlie Murrie, Jarred Newell, Eddie Landwehr, Dan Clark, Nick Garner and Brody Haddow while Sam Dunstan kicked two goals for the Royal Blues.
Final scores
Birchip-Watchem Bulls 9-9=63 defeated Donald Royal Blues 8-10= 58
Reserves
Boort 10-4=64 defeated St Arnaud 8-6=54
Under 16’s
Donald 11-6=72 defeated Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers 5-5=35
Under 13’s
St Arnaud 4-3 = 27 defeated Birchip-Watchem 4-2= 26
Next week’s Second Semi-Final
Seniors 2.30 pm Wycheproof-Narraport v Charlton
Reserves 12.35 pm Charlton v Donald
Under 16’s 10.55 am St Arnaud v Charlton
Under 13’s 9.30 am Boort v Donald
Last Modified on 08/09/2016 18:31