Laurimar will play its first grand final in club history after beating South Morang
Laurimar will play its first grand final in club history after a rousing win over NFL Division 3 premiership rival South Morang.
Riddell
Don't miss out on the headlines from Riddell. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Laurimar has booked its maiden grand final ticket.
The Power will play their first decider in club history after a rousing 26-point win over arch-rival South Morang in Saturday’s NFL Division 3 major semi-final at Whittlesea Showgrounds.
Admitted to the Northern Football League in 2017, the club has risen rapidly, playing finals for the first time in 2018, reaching a preliminary final in 2019 and now a grand final.
Laurimar turned the tables after consecutive losses to the Lions during the home-and-away season, including a fiery contest just two weeks ago.
A dominant third quarter set up the win, turning a 12-point half-time lead into a 36-point buffer as the Power ran out 10.10 (70) to 5.14 (44) winners.
South Morang had eliminated Laurimar in 2018 and 2019, with a straight sets exit in the latter, ending another short-lived hoodoo.
Coach Jimmy Atkins said it was a satisfying moment.
“A monkey (off the back)? I’m not sure, our club hasn’t been around for that long,” he said.
“(2019) was a fair while ago, a fair change to the list, obviously a change of coaches, so it’s good for people to stop talking about because it wasn’t really a thing in house.
“The whole season was (motivation), we’ve been driving to get into the grand final all year.
“We’d been top of the ladder for most of the year, we wanted a top-two spot and the opportunity to win the first (final) and it’s satisfying to have done that and now we’ve got to get the job done.”
Laurimar started strongly, taking a nine-point lead into quarter-time.
The game was even poised at half-time as the Power led by 12 points before breaking the contest open with four goals and keeping South Morang goalless in the third quarter.
The Lions staged a fourth-quarter fightback but will rue inaccuracy in front of goal, booting 2.5, to earn a preliminary final berth.
Atkins said the win started in the middle, praising his young ruckman Ethan Bateman’s performance against the more experienced Nathan Stefanile.
“I thought Ethan in the ruck was really good in his first year of senior footy and first year of footy since he was about 15,” he said.
“He’s a quality athlete with a basketball background that has really helped us.
“The middle of the ground – Luke Wilson, Mitch Thompson, Jake Richards and Kaiden Arthur on the wing – they were our better players.
“The No.1 thing was to win the ball in the middle of the ground and we did that today.
“It doesn’t matter what sort of plans you have around the ground for players, if you don’t win the ball in the middle you’ll struggle to win the game.
DIV 2: BANYULE DENIES EPIC LOWER COMEBACK BID
LEADER: GET YOUR NORTHERN FOOTY NEWS HERE
VENUES: WHERE TO WATCH LOCAL FOOTY FINALS
“They missed a lot of goals but I think that was our pressure around the ground, it was really good for us to apply the pressure everywhere.
“We were able to share it around, I was really proud of the boys, we were accurate in front of goal and made the most of our opportunities.”
Laurimar now has the week off to prepare for the grand final, to be staged at Whittlesea Showgrounds on September 4.
South Morang will play the winner of Sunday’s minor semi-final between Old Eltham Collegians and Kilmore.
‘What we play for’: Wallan ready for grand final challenge
Wallan returns to the RDFNL grand final stage, defeating Macedon in the preliminary final, and is looking to cause a boilover on the big stage.
Grand final wins and a shock or two
Finals accelerated in local footy with plenty of grand final winners as elsewhere there were stunning results as teams looked to qualify for the decider. Here are the talking points from Saturday’s football.