EDFL 2018: Tullamarine sets up Division 1 grand final against Airport West

PRESSURE is likely to be one of the key words on Tullamarine coach David Connell’s whiteboard this week as his team prepares for the Division 1 grand final.

PRESSURE is likely to be one of the key words on David Connell’s whiteboard this week.

Tullamarine rebounded from a disastrous performance in the major semi-final to end Craigieburn’s season in Essendon District Football League Division 1 on Sunday.

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The result has set up a rematch against Airport West, which hammered the Demons by 56 points in the first week of finals to earn a week off and a direct passage through to the decider.

Connell lamented his team’s lack of pressure in that fixture and declared it the club’s worst effort of what has been a mostly positive 2018.

Tullamarine recorded about 125 tackles in the weekend’s preliminary final victory and Connell will be looking for more of the same in the grand final at Windy Hill on Saturday.

Tullamarine coach David Connell has led his team to the grand final. Picture: Jamie Morey

“If we can replicate that (tackle count), we’ll be in it up to our ears I would have thought,” Connell said.

“We were probably questioned a little bit throughout the week as well. We had one poor performance and all of a sudden we were slow and Craigieburn’s speed was going to get us et cetera.

“I think when you lose by 10 goals, you always look pretty slow.

“I’ll put my hand up. Maybe we didn’t come off resting all the players that well (in the final round of the regular season). We probably looked a little bit flat leading into that week before the semi.”

Tullamarine confronted a four-point three-quarter-time deficit against the Eagles before booting five goals to one in the last term to prevail by 22 points, 13.15 (93) to 10.11 (71).

The match was stopped for about 25 minutes early in time on of the third quarter after Ben Gibson was left concussed.

Shannon Dowsett will front the EDFL’s tribunal on Tuesday night after being charged with rough conduct.

“I think at that stage the scores were level, so it was another good test of the mental character of the group to be able to have 25 minutes off,” Connell said.

“We probably had the scoring end in the last quarter, so we held pretty tough in the third.

“For us, it was more about how we were going to rebound from playing pretty poorly the week before.

“That’s probably the most pleasing thing — the group responded really, really well from the disappointment of last week.

“We’ve probably gone from our worst performance last week to our best performance in terms of staying mentally engaged in the game for four quarters.”

Tullamarine's Adam Scott looks to fire off a handball on Saturday. Picture: Jamie Morey

Star Demons defender Russell Laurie restricted ace Craigieburn forward Dean Limbach to three goals in a performance Connell labelled “outstanding”.

Jack Kennedy and Brad Allen bagged three majors apiece, while Tim Barresi, Jonathan Hardman and Caleb Harward were also influential.

Tullamarine will contest its third grand final since 2014 this weekend as the top-two teams after the home-and-away rounds lock horns.

Ryan Pretty and Joel Flanigan were sidelined for the preliminary final and are in line to return on Saturday.

“The resilience of the group as a whole, to lose players and have champions retire and still back up and play in our third grand final since 2014 proves how resilient the footy club is,” Connell said.