SFNL: East Malvern is into the Division 2 decider after defeating Doveton

East Malvern coach Mick Rossborough challenged his group to prove it was a part of the contenders a fortnight before the finals, and on Saturday the Panthers booked their ticket to the grand final.

East Malvern star Nick Gauci. Picture: Valeriu Campan

East Malvern coach Mick Rossborough raised a challenge to his players late in the Southern league Division 2 season.

The Panthers had “a hiccup” and the external noise reached the coach.

“I said to boys with two rounds to go: ‘everyone thinks it’s a two-horse race, let’s make it a three’,” Rossborough said.

Fast-forward four weeks, the Panthers have booked a date with Murrumbeena in the grand after a 10.9 (69) to 4.12 (36) win over Doveton.

The Panthers lost to the Doves in the qualifying final a fortnight ago but rectified their mistakes to deliver a clinical final term at the weekend.

It’s a swift turn around for Rossborough’s group, which was relegated from Division 1 two years ago after a winless season and collected just six wins last campaign.

“We lost 15 players and didn’t win a game in Divvy 1, last year winning six games, to go from six wins to a grand final is a pretty big effort,” Rossborough said.

“If anyone tipped us, they might’ve said ‘oh, they’ll fall into the finals’.

“When we had a hiccup in the middle of the year, lost a couple of games, everyone sort of said ‘they’re gone, it’s only Doveton and Murrumbeena’.

“I said to boys with two rounds to go: ‘everyone thinks it’s a two-horse race, let’s make it a three’.

“They embraced it and now we’re in a grand final.”

Mick Rossborough. Picture: Valeriu Campan

The Panthers had met the Doves three times in the past five weeks and won two of them.

Rossborough said the group did their homework on the Doves and it paid off on Saturday.

“We had a plan, we put some work into Ricky Johnson and their forwards,” he said.

“We changed things up around the ball and it worked.

“Their big bodies through the body cut you up, you’re not going to stop Doveton getting the footy, they’ve got too many good players.

“We tried to push them wide and make them use the ball as much as possible and then tried to rebound quickly to make them chase us.

“In the last quarter they were tired and we were on top of the ground.”

Rossborough, who is hanging up his board after the grand final, said the emotion after the game was a great reflection on how far the club had come.

Jacob Brunner is unlikely to play in the grand final. Picture: Valeriu Campan

“To see the joy on the players and the whole club,” he said.

“I started at Tooronga Malvern in 2000 so there were blokes there I played with … I tell you what, didn’t we belt the song out.

“We got the kids in the room to listen to the song and it was just all we spoke about, the grand final is an event and it goes for a week.

“We spoke about that again and it was just total excitement.

“I think the way we finished the game, we haven’t played our best in the finals but the way we played the last quarter, I think we proved we deserve a shot.”

Logan Berryman, Clay Alexander, Nick Gauci, George Bacolas, William Borcoski Isaac Morrisby, Miller Synman and Josh Salmon were all heavy contributors on Saturday and will need to be again in the decider.

Star midfielder Jacob Brunner is unlikely to face Murrumbeena after suffering an arm injury.

Murrumbeena won both matches during the home and away season by 12 and 24 points.