De La Salle defeated in final round but stays in VAFA Premier section
DE La Salle survives while Collegians’ Shura Taft thrives with eight goals in the final round of VAFA Premier section.
IT WAS a stressful final day on the sidelines for De La Salle coach Paul Satterley to end the 2014 VAFA Premier season on Saturday.
Engaged in a tight battle with Old Trinity at Waverley Oval, Satterley and his coaching staff were provided with updates from Old Brighton’s game against Old Xaverians with relegation on the line throughout the day.
After finding out Brighton had got within a kick of Xavs late in the day, De La was left with 17 players on the field after Tom Curry was sent off the ground for what Satterley believes was a minor indiscretion not worthy of an early shower.
“As (Curry) got sent off in the last quarter I got an update that Brighton were only down by five points against Xavs so you could imagine how I was feeling,” Satterley said.
“That was a pretty hairy moment for the footy club but fortunately Xavs did their part and got the win.”
In the end De La Salle got beaten by six points but survived the drop courtesy of its better percentage over Old Brighton and a crucial win over the Tonners in Round 16.
Curry’s early exit soured what was a pretty spirited effort by De La Salle, according to Satterley.
“I was very disappointed after the game because we just felt that we competed really hard,” he said.
“We nearly won the game so I was really disappointed because I’ve been really proud of the players’ resilience to fight to the end even though we had a player out for half the quarter. It was just a fantastic effort.
“We’ll have to see how it pans out at the tribunal but it was just a controversial decision and it was one where you think how could a player could get sent off for what happened, just a hard, contested ball, was one of those ones that just leaves you a bit flat after a game.”
Collegians goes into its elimination final against Old Scotch full of confidence after scoring an easy 77-point win over the same outfit on Friday night.
Under lights at Harry Trott Oval for the second time this year, Collegians was dominant from start to finish and ensured a finals berth to book a rematch with the Cardinals in a game that will have much more on the line, according to Collegians co-coach Mark Hibbins.
“We did what we had to do,” Hibbins said.
“They rested a few and we knew that and we just had to win the game and that’s what we did but we realised not a lot really rested on that game in terms of going on from here.
“I don’t think it has any influence in terms of next week. We were aware they had a dozen players out before the game so we just took that on board and tried to win, and we’ll take them on next week.”
Collegians got the early jump on Scotch in the opening term with six goals to two to go into the quarter-time huddle 21 points up.
The second term then played out as a carbon copy of the first as another six majors were added to Collegians’ total while the Cardinals could muster only another two of their own.
With the sting out of the game by the start of the second half, the scoring dried up in the third term and a 47-point half-time lead for Collegians was only stretched out to 51 by the final change.
Shura Taft returned from overseas and belted home eight goals for the night in a best-on-ground performance, while Dom Russo also impressed with two goals to his name for the evening.
Though Hibbins admits the home-and-away finale will count for very little come Saturday, he does believe his side will take plenty of confidence into the knockout final.
“We’ll take some confidence out of the game because we won by 12 or 13 goals and we played some good footy,” Hibbins said.
“Certainly once we got on top the intensity dropped off but we just tried to play a good standard of footy and we know it’s going to be a completely different team that we’ll be coming up against so we’ll prepare for that.
“We should get a couple back, I would think. We’re getting close to full strength and we’re playing some really good footy so we’ll go into the game confident but not overconfident.”
Old Brighton will be playing Premier B footy next season after losing its place in the top flight with a 37-point defeat to Old Xaverians.
The Tonners got within a kick early in the final term before the Xavs kicked clear — having led at every change and controlling most of the game up to that point.
Though very disappointed to be out of Premier, Old Brighton coach Simon Williams walked away from Toorak Park feeling positive about his side’s final showing of the year.
“I’m really proud of the blokes,” Williams said.
“We had our chances and played really well today and didn’t convert our opportunities as they did but I’m really proud and I told them that after the game.
“We had opportunities where we didn’t score, we worked really hard to get those opportunities and we missed crucial goals at crucial times and they went to the other end and kicked goals, so it was a really big swing in terms of momentum.
“I think we were spent in the end, to be quite honest.”
Williams said failing to convert in front of goal plagued his side right throughout the campaign.
“We were controlling the game at times but not getting any scoreboard pressure and that’s probably been symptomatic of our season,” he said.
“At crucial times throughout the year we haven’t been able to score and the opposition have and psychologically it’s hard to come back from that.”
While Williams feels the Tonners should be a long-term mainstay of the Premier division, he believes going down to Premier B could have some benefits.
“I’m really more philosophical about it because I’ve been involved in amateur footy for 22 years and that’s just the way it is,” he said. “The bottom two go down and the top two in (Premier B) go up so it’s never going to change and unfortunately that’s where we found ourselves.
“We played some good games and beat some of the top teams and ran some others really close but at the end of the day you’ve got to go back then try and get back up, which is really hard to do.”
St Bedes coach Mick Dwyer believes the Tigers must improve in a number of areas off the field after losing their place in the top flight and finishing last with just three wins for the year.
Dwyer used his side’s final game of the season on Saturday as a chance to blood some young talent against Beaumaris and in the end went down 42 points at Banksia Reserve.
Although his coaching future with the club has not yet been confirmed, Dwyer outlined what he thinks the Tigers should do heading into 2015 as a Premier B club.
“It’s a massive disappointment but we just had too many of our good players either get injured or go away for periods during the year and we just weren’t able to cover them, but I think for the development of our young guys it’s actually a good thing for them,” Dwyer said.
“They go down without the pressure of A-grade and they can hopefully learn and respond but there’s a bit of work ahead for the club.
“We need to improve in a lot of areas in order to be pretty strong in (Premier B), but it doesn’t just happen.
“We need to get our off-field structures a little bit better. So recruiting’s one, fitness and conditioning is another and just improving things professionally in the way we go about things as a club is important, too.
“We need to do a lot of things differently so it’s a real negative but at the same time we’re young and a lot of the guys are probably not mature enough to play in Premier and B-grade gives them that opportunity.”
On Saturday the young Tigers took it up to the Sharks and led at both quarter time and half-time before losing grip of the contest in the third quarter.
Up by 10 at the main break, St Bedes allowed nine Beaumaris goals in the third quarter and trailed by 35 points at three-quarter time, before conceding another six goals to five in the final term.
“We fell away from what we wanted to do and left too much to too few, which has probably been the major concern we’ve had all year, just leaving it to too few and not being able to respond when challenged,” Dwyer said.
“But our average age was only about 20 today so it’s good development for them, if they take it in the right way.”
St Kevin’s will have to fight for a berth in the Premier B grand final this weekend after failing to stamp their ticket to the season finale against the University Blues on Saturday.
A week off and a guaranteed place in the decider was on the line at a windy Sportscover Arena and the Blues made the most of the conditions in the opening term to establish a handy 31-point break by quarter time.
The Skobbers then pegged that deficit back to 13 in the second term before breaking even on the scoreboard in the third to be well in the hunt by the final change.
However, according to coach Daniel Harford, St Kevins took its foot off the gas pedal in the final term and allowed the Blues five goals to one to eventually go down by 39 points.
“They got off to a good start with the wind so we were in it right through to half-time and three-quarter time and getting into the last quarter we just weren’t able to get the job done,” Harford said.
“They were pretty clinical in the last quarter and ran away with it and we, I think, in the end decided the game was over and stopped running so it blew out a bit more than it should’ve but we were in it up to our eyeballs.”
Despite trailing by five goals at quarter time, Harford denied the notion his side had spent too much energy playing catch-up after the first change.
“We were pretty calm about the way we played,” Harford said.
“We just played pretty methodical footy in the second quarter, kicked four goals in 10 minutes to get ourselves right back in it and then got held up.
“They played pretty good defensive footy but the first half was fine, the third quarter was a really positive quarter and we were just outplayed in the last quarter by a better team on the day.”
In Premier C the Hampton Rovers will be playing in the grand final in a fortnight’s time after again proving they have the edge over minor premier Marcellin in their qualifying final at Trevor Barker Oval.
Coming into the game having already taken care of Marcellin twice during the home-and-away season, the Rovers enjoyed a dominant first half to go into the main break 28 points up after scoring six goals to one in the opening term.
However the Eagles clawed their way back into the contest in the third quarter and outscored Hampton with five goals to two to get within three points by three-quarter time.
But the Rovers steadied in the final term with five goals of their own to run away 34-point winners and book their ticket to the decider.
Ed Turner again starred up forward with five goals for the day while Mathew Care and Mark Devereaux each snagged three majors of their own.
