Southern league: Highett into Division 2 grand final after holding out Keysborough in preliminary final

HIGHETT will meet Doveton Eagles in the Southern Division 2 grand final after getting past Keysborough in the preliminary final at Cheltenham.

IT was a desperate finish.

Keysborough, behind all afternoon, summoned a fighting final quarter that put Highett to the sternest test.

But the Bulldogs survived it, winning Saturday’s SFNL Division 2 preliminary final by 11 points at Jack Barker Oval in Cheltenham and going through to the grand final against Doveton Eagles.

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The Highett coaching staff greeted the siren with as much relief as joy, thankful the Bulldogs had held on to earn a pop at the high-flying Eagles.

Keysy had cut the Dogs’ lead to four points at the 19-minute mark of the last quarter after a goal from Chris Bryan, his third for the term and sixth for the match.

Highett wouldn’t crack under the unrelenting pressure. Ed Turner marked strongly and made the set-shot from 25m to put the advantage back out to 10 points, and in the closing stages the Bulldogs got by through two crucial tackles from Kyle Hendy, both gaining him free kicks. A mark from Harry O’Neill at half back was timely too.

Chris Bryan soars for another high mark for Keysborough. Pic: Andy Bekierz (Andy’s Pix)

When the end came, Keysy were left to rue their slow start.

Highett, moving the ball quickly to key targets Turner, Joel Jones and Mitch Hoare, poured through eight goals to two to earn a 39-point lead at quarter time.

It condemned Keysy to a game of catch-up. In the next three quarters they kicked 12 goals to six, but it wasn’t enough to repair the damage of the first quarter.

Turner, playing out of the square, took a free kick and opened Highett’s goal tally. Then the Bulldogs ran free, with Charlie O’Neill, Turner again and Tom Brown slotting goals. Keysy hit back through Matt Carnelley and Tom Siposs, but Jones, Jack Prosser, Jordan Thompson and Brown tacked four more goals to the Bulldogs’ effort and at the first change the scoreboard read 8.2 to 2.1.

The Highett bench after the siren. Pic: Andy Bekierz (Andy’s Pix)

Keysy supporters winced at it, but their team has much spirit and the Burra gradually played their way into the match, helped by Bryan, the dash of defender Troy Cullen, the experience of Michael Downie and the nous of Cory Hargreaves.

Bryan brought the crowd to its feet just before half time with a classic high mark on the wing, a hanger captured by club photographer Andy Bekierz. The big fellow landed heavily and looked to be hurt, but he shook it off.

And in the second half he almost carried Keysy over the line with six goals, his marking certain, his kicking long and accurate.

But Highett’s sparkling first quarter was ultimately as decisive as it was impressive.

The crafty Turner finished with four goals, Sam Jackson and Thompson had a lot of the ball, Hendy was lively across half forward, Pat Singh defended stoutly and the Bulldogs were chuffed with Ben Hughes’s performance in the ruck as they went through to the decider.

Highett and Keysborough shake hands after a terrific preliminary final. Pic: Andy Bekierz (Andy’s Pix)

FROM THE COACHES
Sam Hecker, Highett

“Really good, awesome to get to the grand final. I think we deserved it. We’ve had a good year and we’ve got a young group of players who try their hearts out. Our last two or three games, we hadn’t started well, so today we came out with our foot down and didn’t wait to see what the opposition had. It was a great start. Keysy came at us a few times, but in that last quarter we put faith in our system and we held on.’’

Can Highett beat Doveton Eagles?

“We can beat Doveton. We’re going to play our game style but we’ve got a few match-ups that we’ll do differently than last time we played them. We’ve learned a bit from that. No doubt they’re a quality side but we’ll give ourselves every chance.’’

Matt Ferguson, Keysborough

“We’ve been really good starters all year, but unfortunately today we didn’t get out of the box. They (Highett) have probably been the slow starters all year, but they found the right formula today and totally jumped us. We threw everything at them for the next three quarters but came up a bit short. I said to the boys at three-quarter time, ‘It’s all or nothing, we have to back ourselves and play adventurous footy’. We cleared out the 50 for the two big boys (Bryan and Carnelley) and they delivered but in the end we had a few too many shallow kicks. Shows the character of our players to get that close after it looked all over at quarter time.’’

Highett 8.4, 9.8, 11.11, 14.15 (99)

Keysborough 2.1, 5.3, 9.3, 14.4 (88)

GOALS, Highett: Ed Turner 4, Joel Jones 2, Tom Brown 2, Nathan Scott 1, Mitchell Hoar 1, Jordan Thompson 1, Charlie O’Neill 1, Kyle Hendy 1, Jack Prosser 1

Keysborough: Chris Bryan 6, Cory Hargreaves 3, Matthew Carnelley 2, Jay Pitto 1, Tamas Siposs 1, Timothy Werner 1

BEST, Highett: Samuel Jackson, Jordan Thompson, Nathan Scott, Ed Turner, Mitchell Hoar, Benjamin Hughes

Keysborough: Chris Bryan, Riet Pal, Michael Downie, Cory Hargreaves, Troy Cullen, Brandon Mather