Craigieburn needs to regroup after losing to Essendon Doutta Stars in their Essendon District Football League division 1 semi-final on Saturday.
The Eagles led by a point at half-time at Greenvale Recreation Reserve before the Stars kicked 10 goals to four in the second half for a 15.17 (107) – 10.11 (71) win.
The win puts the Stars through to the grand final while the Eagles will face Tullamarine.
Eagles coach Peter Bugden said his players couldn’t sustain the pressure they had generated in the first half.
“We were leading at half-time so we had addressed some of the issues we had wanted to going into the game,” Bugden said. “We ran out of legs and didn’t apply enough pressure [but] there were plenty of positives out of the game.”
Despite the Stars notching up 32 scoring shots for the game, Bugden praised the work of his defenders.
“To be fair, if the Stars had kicked straight the result could have been a lot different,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure on the kickers and a lot of the shots were from a long way out.”
He said he was happy to have kept the Stars’ three big forwards to five goals between them.
“Kade Carey kicked no goals, Aaron Kite kicked three and Luke Buttigieg kicked two goals,” he said.
Midfielder Shylo Smith kicked four goals for the Stars.
“We did a good job around the ground on him, but he got off the leash around the goals,” Bugden said.
“We would have liked to have kept him to two goals.”
Cameron Cloke kicked four goals for the Eagles and Jason Cloke kicked three.
“Jason was sick all week so we’re looking forward to him being fully fit this week,” Bugden said.
He said Jeremy Page, Josh Young, Brent Gordon and Matt Thomas also shone for the Eagles. Young will face the tribunal after receiving a yellow card for an incident involving Shylo Smith.
“I don’t think there was too much in the incident,” Bugden said. “I hope they take into account Shylo returned to the field and kicked four goals.”
Bugden said there could be a number of changes to the side for the preliminary final.
“Nick Fletcher should be back this week, which will be great,” he said. “The under-18s and reserves are in the finals so they are still training, too. There’s still another eight players who could come into the senior side.”
