Kyneton hammers Maryborough to seal Bendigo Football League finals spot for first time since 2003

“WE’RE BACK”. With that two-word tweet, Kyneton announced its return to Bendigo Football League finals for the first time since 2003.

Bendigo Football League: Kyneton V Sandhurst

“WE’RE BACK”.

With that two-word tweet, Kyneton announced its return to Bendigo Football League finals for the first time since 2003 on Saturday night.

The Tigers secured their top five spot and ended a 12-year finals drought in style with a 65-point shallecking of Maryborough on Saturday.

WE'RE BACK 🐯 #finals2015

— Kyneton FNC (@KynetonFNC) August 29, 2015

Kyneton kicked away in the second half at Barkers Oval, recording a 21.16 (142) to 12.5 (77) victory as Ben Weightman and Rhys Magin combined for 15 goals.

Weightman, who snagged 10 majors in the win, said the Tigers’ first finals appearance since 2003 would be a day to savour.

“They were all obviously pretty excited and pretty proud of all the boys for getting there,” Weightman said.

“We just have to do the right thing and try to put up a really good effort next week.”

The Tigers will face Eaglehawk in an elimination final this weekend, having lost twice to the Hawks during the home-and-away season.

Weightman said Kyneton would be confident of causing an upset.

“It’s definitely winnable. The two games this year we’ve just lapsed off for one quarter and that’s when they’ve done the damage,” he said.

“We just need to make sure we give a four-quarter effort and we should be able to take it up to them.”

He said the Tigers’ playing group had banded behind interim coach Luke Beattie since he took over from Mark Adamson in July.

“He’s doing everything right. He’s one of the boys, he gets along with all the boys and they all look up to him and respect him,” he said.

James Meiklejohn, Max O’Sullivan and Jake Hyland were also named among Kyneton’s best players in the victory over Maryborough.

“We started off a bit flat, we didn’t get going until the third quarter,” Weightman said.

“I think we thought we had it in the bag, (but) Maryborough certainly put up a fight in the first half.”

Elsewhere, Gisborne rounded out its campaign with a convincing 38-point triumph over Kangaroo Flat.

The Dogs prevailed 18.12 (120) to 12.10 (82) away from home, with Josh Govan, Tom May and Hamish Govan performing strongly.

Gisborne finished the season in sixth spot, two wins behind fifth-placed Kyneton.