Bright sun and blustery conditions set the scene for the cut-throat Preliminary Final between West Preston and Bundoora at Preston City Oval on Sunday. The Bulls had been the underdog story of the finals series, with last week's upset win over Montmorency.The Roosters enjoyed the wind advantage in the first quarter and to their credit used it to great effect, bursting out of the blocks with a four goal to nil opening term.
It was a horror start for the Bulls as star midfielder Matthew Vaselevski limped off after ten minutes with what looked like a nasty ankle injury.
Given the Grand Final birth at stake, Bundoora surprisingly lacked a genuine hunger for the contest early. Their misery was compounded further when in the dying minutes of the quarter, Rooster Jake Williams was gifted a goal on the back of two 50m penalties, handing his side a healthy 26-point quarter time advantage.
Bulls coach Phil Maylin was breathing fire in the huddle, slamming their lack of accountability and questioning their endeavour. He urged his side to lift in the second term with the wind in their backs.
However Maylin would have been even angrier as West Preston managed a goal against the breeze five minutes into the quarter, again courtesy of some wayward defensive pressure.
Bundoora were desperate for some luck and finally found it, as Ben Fletcher was the beneficiary of a fortuitous bounce, which gifted the Bulls their first of the game after almost a quarter and a half of football.
All of a sudden the contest was turned on its head, as the Bulls flicked the switch through clean and direct use of the football. The result was a devastating barrage of five straight goals to bring the match well and truly to life.
Their renewed vigour for the contest was emphasized when defender Trent Barbero saved a certain goal with a diving tackle on young Rooster Jacob Ramaekers.
West Preston were well and truly shell-shocked and could count themselves lucky to hold a slender 2-point lead at half time.
As the sun disappeared behind the clouds, the second half commenced in overcast conditions. Against the wind, Bundoora adopted their renowned lock down style, flooding the West Preston forward line and causing numerous stoppages.
The Bulls were spurred on by pocket dynamo Brent Marshall and managed to steal a goal on the break as Luke Shelton kicked truly to hand Bundoora a three point lead ten minutes into the third term.
Just when it seemed the Roosters had squandered their wind advantage, the game took another unprecedented momentum swing to shatter the Bundoora faithful. West Preston began to dominate the centre clearances and the result was immediate.
West put on a clinic, booting seven unanswered goals in 20 blistering minutes to completely blow their opponents off the park. In the blink of an eye the Roosters where 42 points up with one foot in the Grand Final door.
“All the hard work in preseason and week to week comes down to the next 30 minutes,” West Preston coach Vin Dattoli told his players at three quarter time.
It seemed Bundoora would need early goals to have any chance of getting back into the contest, however the game was effectively ended five minutes in when Debri Kutrolli unleashed a 50m bomb to extend the Roosters advantage.
With the contest over, West Preston eased their foot off the accelerator. As a result Bundoora staged a mini fight back, however it was a case of too little left far too late as the Roosters ran out 16-point victors to set up a Grand Final clash with Heidelberg next Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers will be chasing an unprecedented fifth straight Division 1 Premiership.