GDFL finals news, updates and statistics: Inverleigh v Bannockburn

Inverleigh coach Adam Donohue says his side is back to their best after a dominant performance against Bannockburn in the GDFL’s first final.

Football GDFL qualifying finals Inverleigh v Bannockburn. Inverleigh 11 Jarrod Young and Bannockburn 10 Ben Cole Picture: Mark Wilson

Bannockburn co-coach Ron Pilgrim said his side was “completely outclassed” by a dominant Inverleigh side that ran out winners in the first qualifying final.

The Hawks took advantage of the wind in the opening quarter at St Albans Reserve, booting four goals from 11 scoring shots to set up the 12.19 (91) to 8.1 (49) victory.

Inverleigh coach Adam Donohue said it was “a complete performance” from his side.

GDFL qualifying finals

“The last few weeks we’ve been playing with how we structure and we haven’t played our best football,” he said.

“We reverted back to what we know and it showed, we probably should have won by more in the end but our finishing in front of goal let us down.

“It was a pretty complete performance, the midfielders were really strong around the ball and fed the ball into our forward line nicely, the forwards created good space but didn’t really reward themselves with their finishing.

“Our back six was so strong, they’re really reliable and experienced guys back there, so to hold them to a pretty low amount of scoring shots was good, they were just efficient with their kicking.”

Inverleigh ruck Luke Wilson was dominant in the air against Bannockburn, giving his midfield brigade first use of the ball for most of the day.

GDFL qualifying finals

The win means Inverleigh will face East Geelong for a place in the grand final, with the Eagles enjoying the week off for winning the minor premiership.

Meanwhile, Pilgrim and his squad will play the winner of Geelong West and Bell Post Hill in a must-win elimination final.

Pilgrim said it was disappointing to be beaten in “every aspect” of a finals contest.

“They were obviously a lot better than us in every aspect of the game,” he said.

GDFL qualifying finals

“Inverleigh’s midfield was on top all day, probably in the last quarter we started to get a little bit of centre clearance stuff but they were outstanding and full credit to them, they completely outclassed and outplayed us.

“We converted well when we had the opportunity, but I thought we broke down across the half forward line a bit, we had won a lot of the footy at times and we just weren’t clean moving the ball when we needed to.

GDFL qualifying finals

“St Albans is such a big ground, you need to have people presenting and clunking the footy across there but as much as we converted well, we probably didn’t get enough inside 50s to really hurt them.

“Our execution was a bit poor and our movement was stagnant at times, which really hurts on big grounds like St Albans.”

Originally published as GDFL finals news, updates and statistics: Inverleigh v Bannockburn