West Preston-Lakeside ends Greensborough’s season with clinical display
West Preston-Lakeside marches on with an eighth straight finals win, ending Greensborough’s season, and setting up a blockbuster Montmorency clash.
Northern
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The three-peat dream remains alive for West Preston-Lakeside.
The Roosters disposed of rival Greensborough by 27 points on Saturday in a clinical NFL Division 1 elimination final display.
An early Jackson Barling onslaught ignited the two-time reigning premier with three goals helping set up a commanding 42-point lead at half-time at Preston City Oval.
While Greensborough was able to win the second half, it’s season came to an end 10.12 (72) to 7.3 (45), while West Preston-Lakeside progresses to a sudden-death semi-final against Montmorency.
Roosters coach Rob Maiorana said his players find a new level come finals.
“The boys set themselves to give a good account of themselves today and we came out with the right attitude and attack on the ball,” he said.
“We’ve got (experience) but we’re blending that with some young guys, we had five play their first final.
“The youngies push the oldies along and give them a bit more excitement, it’s a good mix at the moment.
“The boys always lift for finals, they put in so much work all year and this is why they do it.
“When they’re here they want to give a good account of themselves, they don’t want to let each other down or their coaches, I’m really proud of them.”
After a tight opening quarter, West Preston-Lakeside broke the game open in the second term with a four-goal-to-nil blitz.
Goals to Daniel Costanzo, Alex Federico, Mitch Crapper and Barling gave the Roosters an almost unassailable 56-14 lead at half-time.
Jackson Hasler finally broke the goal drought for Greensborough in the sixth minute of the third quarter as the lead was whittled down to 37 points at the final change.
The Borough made a fourth-quarter surge as goals to Tynan Smith, Andrew Stellas and Josh Caddy brought them to within 19 points after 15 minutes.
However, Aiden Tilley’s second goal of the game broke the momentum and sealed the game.
Matthew Belbasis was named the Roosters’ best, the 2018 premiership player finding his best form at the right time of the season.
Matthew Harman, Ethan Penrith, Michael Ercolano and Joel McDonald impressed, while Max Dreher tagged Greensborough gun Tom Bell out of the game.
The result secures a minor semi-final berth against Montmorency on Sunday.
West Preston-Lakeside claimed a 12-point win in the final round of the home-and-away season, while the Magpies triumphed by 17 points in Round 7.
Maiorana said the recent win would count for little and played down the chances of another premiership run from fourth.
“I don’t think that will count for much, it resets now,” he said.
“They’ve been clearly in the top three all year so they’ll be hard to beat, their side is littered with top-end talent.
“You’ve got to be in it to win it, it’s a long shot I think to work our way through given the strength and dominance of Heidelberg and Bundoora.
“We’re looking no further than Mont next week and we’ll plan for that and if we’re lucky enough to still be alive we’ll do the same the following week.”
Greensborough’s defence held up stoutly against an avalanche of Roosters inside 50s and Will Reinhold, Nick Riddle, Angus Seivers and Billy Bedford were named the Borough’s best.
Coach Saade Ghazi said there were plenty of positives in his first year in charge at War Memorial Park but it was a disappointing way to end the campaign.
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“All done and dusted, it’s disappointing, especially when you don’t play well,” he said.
“We didn’t play well the first half at all, the second half was better, but overall it was disappointing – we were beaten by a better team.
“We just didn’t kick the ball well today – it wasn’t pressure, we were out and free, it was our execution – we had a lot of turnovers today.
“There’s always positives, we’re not far away, we’ve been in the games all year but we had four losses under 18 points and a draw.”
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