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South Barwon move into another grand final
NEWTOWN & Chilwell coach Jacob Spolding was left devastated after his side's inaccurate first half proved fatal as it crashed out of the GFL finals series.
The Eagles went out in straight sets after their qualifying final loss to St Joseph's the previous week, going down by four points in a thriller at Simonds Stadium, 8.20 (68) to Bell Park's 10.12 (72).
The Eagles took until the 10th minute of the second term to kick a major and sat on a wasteful 2.14 (26) to Bell Park's 7.5 (47) at halftime.
The fightback continued in the third term as Jay Bett and Lachlan Edwards goaled to reduce the margin to 15 points at the final change.
Trailing by 16 points at the 23rd-minute mark of the last quarter, all looked over for Newtown, before Edwards kicked his fourth goal of the match to spark a stirring late charge. Midfielders Rob Condy and Allan Johnson spotted up Bett, who was able to convert two set shots in the space of a minute and suddenly it was four points the difference.
But ultimately time beat the Eagles, who were gallant to the end.
"How are newtown arrogant ? Because they play good football ? At least they had a better year than grovey ...#flog #keyboardhero"
James
"It was the character of the group, they just never say die," Spolding said. "We worked really hard and they set up heaps of opportunities, however, we couldn't capitalise on them.
"We knew what Bell Park were all about and we matched up on them very well, but you can't win a final kicking 8.20 and we kicked ourselves out of it.
"The strange thing is with 15 seconds to go we had a chance to win the game and if we had kicked straight, the result would have been different."
But Spolding said the Eagles had taken big steps this season.
"The way the group came together after starting off on 0-2 and then 3-3 was great, to go on and finish the season on 14-4 was a great effort. The club has come a long way in the last two years and as a playing group we can only get stronger," he said.
Newtown recruited strongly in the off-season, luring South Warrnambool teenager Matthew Sully, country star Ryan Normington and former VFL star Jarrod McCorkell in addition to former AFL heavyweights Brad Ottens and Ryan Gamble.
"We were rapt with everyone we brought into the footy club. They're all really great people and they all brought 100 per cent each ... we will be fielding the same side next season," Spolding said.
Last Modified on 08/01/2013 07:15