Tara Murray
Twelve months ago, the Craigieburn Eagles men’s Big V division 2 side only narrowly missed out on finishing last.
Fast forward 12 months with a different coach and different playing group, the Eagles are the first team through to the grand final.
After having the first week of finals off, the Eagles came out ready to go on Saturday night against the Mildura Heat.
The Eagles led by 13 at quarter time and the margin got as high as 20 in the second quarter.
The Heat continued to attack and the margin was just six points heading into the final quarter.
With the home crowd behind them, the Eagles were steady to come away with a 100-90 win.
Eagles coach Tim Annett said the group was pretty stoked to be in the grand final.
“We set our sights on a really high finish,” he said. “We wanted to come in and change our roster and aim to finish in the top three and push for the championships.
“We’ve been able to do that.”
Annett said it was a strange game with the side starting so well before dropping off a bit.
He said they lost a bit of momentum in the middle of the game.
“Credit to Mildura they fought hard to get back into the game,” he said. “We managed to pull away at the end.
“I still had full confidence that we could pull away and win. We’ve won a lot of close games this year and when it comes down to crunch time we can pull out wins.
“When we’re in that position we stick together with what we know works.”
Gene Vocale top scored with 33 points while Lewayne Grant had 30 points.
Annett said they have a number of scorers that can step up when they need them to and it was those two guys on Saturday night.
Not only will the Eagles play in the grand final, they will get to host it. They will face the winner of the Heat and the Surf Coast in two weeks time.
Annett said it’s pretty exciting for the club to have that opportunity.
“From the position that we’ve come from last year to where we are now,” he said. “We want to get the job done and go up a division.”
Annett said they would have a bit of a lighter week this week to freshen up the playing group for the grand final.
“The job is only half done,” he said. “We’re in a position to win and there’s still a lot of hard work to do.”
