Burras captain Tony Lockyer injured in win over Roosters

Sebastopol claims double chance after win over North Ballarat but might lose one of their key players for the rest of the year. More here.

Sebastopol might be a step closer to a grand final but their win against North Ballarat may have come at the loss of their captain for the rest of the season.

The Burras now have a double chance to make the grand final after a 27-point win over the Roosters in the first elimination final in the Ballarat Football Netball League on Saturday.

But the joys of progressing to the next round quickly turned sour with an injury to captain Tony Lockyer.

Lockyer was forced to sit out the second half with an ankle injury.

He ended the match on crutches with Burras coach Mick Searl admitting it didn’t look good.

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“It didn’t look good at the time, he went under in a tackle,” he said.

“We’ll find out this week (the prognosis).”

It was a brave performance from Sebastopol who was forced to play one interchange down for a majority of the match and without their captain.

In a close contest early, Sebastopol was more clinical in front of goal to lead by 12 points at half time.

The third quarter, the Burras pulled away, breaking the game open with five goals.

This included one passage of play with the Burras moving from defence to attack, first with handballs, before penetrating kicks in the corridor opened up the Roosters defence as Sebastopol kicked a goal.

It was the goal which gave the team a match-high margin of 26 points and secured the teams passage to next week despite North Ballarat trying in the last quarter to comeback to no avail.

Sebastopol captain Tony Lockyer talks to his teammates at the three quarter time break. Picture: Shane Jones.

“We believe we’ve got enough depth to push and challenge (even without Tony),” Searl said.

“The first half was a really in tight contest, which North really enjoys.

“That third quarter we knew if we could arm wrestle our way with some deep inside 50 entries we’d give ourselves a really good chance

“We did that and we did it well.”

Sebastopol now takes on Melton this week in a qualifying final with the winner to play in the grand final.

Melton defeated the Ballarat Swans by 23 points in the battle of the top two teams after a third term charge which saw the team kicks six goals to one after the Swans led at half time.

The Swans now face the winner of East Point and Darley who play at City Oval on Sunday.