VAFA live stream: University Blues take on St Kevin’s in Men’s Premier preliminary final

The preliminary final was very much up for grabs for three quarters, then the defending VAFA Men’s Premier champs clicked into gear to kick an unbelievable nine goals. Re-live all the action.

St Kevin’s showed their champion qualities to run away with a 45-point victory over University Blues in the VAFA Men’s Premier League preliminary final on Saturday.

The defending champions will now face minor premiers Collegians in the decider next weekend.

St Kevin’s, who finished fourth after an inconsistent season, were guilty of wasting a number of opportunities in front of goal and made the turn into the final quarter with just three goals and 11 behinds to their name.

Then something clicked. Goals flowed, nine of them to be precise. St Kevin’s scored 59 points in 30 minutes of footy to turn a tight scrap into a one-sided contest.

Uni Blues, who let a big lead slip against Collegians last weekend, couldn’t go with them.

Earlier, Uni Blues shot out to a 21-7 quarter time lead only for St Kevin’s to claw their way back by halftime thanks to seven behinds.

St Kevin’s kicked their only goal on the third quarter with eight minutes left. Uni Blues retaliated with one of their own right on the siren. At 29-29, it seemed a thriller was in store, but St Kevin’s had other ideas.

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Young talent is driving University Blues’ push to return to the top of the VAFA Premier Men’s competition, according to skipper Ayce Cordy.

The Blues are hunting their first premiership since 2019 and will take on St Kevin’s in the preliminary final on Saturday.

The game will be LIVE STREAMED on KommunityTV from Elsternwick Park Oval at 2.15pm. See the full weekend schedule below.

Cordy said the opportunity to create a new piece of history at the club was really exciting, especially given the turnover of the club’s playing list in the past four years.

“There’s only a handful of guys left who played in that premiership, so we’ve got a really different mix,” he said.

“We’ve had young guys like Eddy Ziebarth and Isaac Dykes, who have moved down from the country and have been great additions. They’re studying at the university and it’s benefited us to have them on our footy team.

Ayce Cordy (centre) is confident his side has no hangover from last weekend’s collapse.

“We’ve built nicely throughout the year and hopefully we can gel a little bit more and go on and do something special in the next couple of weeks.”

The Blues were forced into the preliminary final after coughing up a four-goal lead late against Collegians in the second semi-final last week.

Holding a 24-point lead with 10 minutes to play, Cordy and his teammates appeared set to be the first team through to the decider.

But Collegians produced a miracle comeback.

Cordy said it wasn’t a result the club had dwelled on.

“You’ve got to move on pretty quickly, the beauty of having finished second on the ladder is that we’ve got the double chance,” he said.

Can Uni Blues bounce back and reach the grand final?

“It was a bloody good game of footy where we had to be on for four quarters. We didn’t do too much wrong in the last few minutes, they just did what they had to better.”

Uni Blues have won both of their previous meetings against SKOB this season. Both games were undecided by under a kick.

“We’ve had some great battles this year so we need to bring our best,” Cordy said.

“They’ve got a lot of dangerous players across the ground, their defence can take a lot of intercept marks and really set up their offence.

“Given their success, they’ve got a lot of experience in these big games. You could have thrown a blanket across the top-four sides this year.

“It’s going to be a real arm wrestle.”