East Point beats Darley in extra time to progress to the Ballarat grand final

With the wind and conditions against him Jackson Merrett delivered one of the goals of his career to help East Point make the grand final. WATCH the goal here.

East Point is into their first grand final in five years. Picture: East Point Football Club.

Former Essendon player Jackson Merrett’s goal late in the game for East Point might be the most important of his career.

It also helped the Kangaroos make the Ballarat league grand final.

East Point will play Melton in the decider on Saturday after beating Darley in extra time at Sebastopol.

In a crazy contest scores were level at 8.13.(61) when the final siren went.

East Point would kick three goals to two in extra time to overcome the defending premiers by seven points.

But late in the final term it looked like the Kangaroos chances of success were over as Darley led in the 28th minute by seven points following a goal from Brett Bewley.

Merrett had other ideas, kicking a late goal, to send the game into extra time with scores level.

WATCH the goal below.

“He never looked like missing,” East Point coach Joe Carmody said.

“There were not many goals that end for the entire day against the breeze.

“If you want the ball in the hands of anyone kicking for goal, you want it in Jackson’s hands.”

It will be the first grand final for East Point since 2019 with Carmody to coach in his first grand final.

Jackson Merrett kicked a goal late in the game to help East Point make the grand final in Ballarat. Picture: East Point Football Club.

He previously fell short in the 2022 preliminary final as the Ballarat Swans loss by less than two kicks.

Carmody admits those lessons of previous close contests helped him and the team.

“The experiences I had at Ballarat kept me calm,” he said.

“You have to keep coaching and keep concentrating on what we had to do to either win the game of put it to extra time.”

Early on, Darley took control of the contest in the middle with Brett Bewley, Matt Denham and Luther Baker getting on top in the middle.

East Point came back, which helped them to eventually turn the momentum.

“Their midfielders really got on top of us in the second quarter but the tide turned in the third quarter and it felt like we were running on top of the ground,” Carmody said.

“We just wanted to win more of the ball in the contest and spread.

“There were opportunities for both teams to win in the final quarter.

“We were confident going into extra time that we had the run to finish off the game and that’s what kept us in it in the last quarter.

“We just kept finding space when the game opened up.”

East Point will take on Melton with both teams winning against each other this year.

Check out this mastheads preview of the contest later this week.