South Morang will have to make the grand final the hard way after fading away in the second half against Reservoir in its Northern Football League division 3 semi-final.
The Lions trailed by two points at half-time on Saturday before being blown out of the game in the second half to lose 19.6 (120) – 11.12 (78).
When they face Epping in a preliminary final on Saturday, the Lions will be without co-captain Mitch Buckley, who was knocked out in the opening minutes of the semi-final.Buckley was taken by ambulance to hospital with a broken jaw and concussion and will miss the rest of the season.
David Berryman is also in doubt – he is facing suspension after being given a red card and sent from the field in the first quarter.
Lions coach Craig Lambert said his side should have been able to cope with being down two players for three quarters.
“It has an impact as it takes your rotations and things like that out,” he said.
“You can’t pick when you are going to have a good day and you can’t pick when you’re going to have a bad day.
“You can’t pick when you will get injuries … it was sheer unlucky today.
“You train to prepare to run out a football game.”
Lambert said he was unsure what was behind the second-half fade out.
“We had all the momentum and then we came out in the third quarter and we couldn’t get our match-ups right and couldn’t get our ball movement right,” he said.
“I knew that going against the wind we would have to be pretty accurate going inside 50 [but] we couldn’t get it past the 50-metre line.”
Wayne Pavitt was the best for the Lions – he kicked five goals and was everywhere in the first half.
“He was really good … he continued to try and never gave up,” Lambert said. “Unfortunately, he did not have enough support around him.”
Lambert said player management would be a key this week as several players had pulled up sore.
Matthew Trim, Aaron D’Angelo and James Gebert are among those with injury concerns.
Epping will enter the match on a high after coming back from 61 points down in the second quarter against Watsonia at the weekend.
The Pingers kicked 14 of the last 15 goals to win 17.9 (111) – 14.13 (97). Robert Tinsely kicked five goals for the Pingers.
