The monkey is off the back for Whittlesea in the Northern Football League division 2 competition.
After exiting finals in straight sets last season, the Eagles suffered heartbreak in the first week of finals this year, losing after being 52 points down.
On Sunday, the Eagles put that all behind them to keep their season alive with a hard fought win against St Mary’s in a knockout semi final.
Eagles coach Garry Ramsay said it was nice to finally get one.
“It’s really good and it’s a relief,” he said. “We’re excited for next week now.
“We didn’t quite play as well as last week but we were still able to get the job done.”
The Eagles led by seven points at quarter time before extending the margin to 15 points at the main break.
It could have been larger had the Eagles kicked straight, having kicked 6.11 for the first half.
It was still 13 points at the last break before St Mary’s kicked the first goal of the final quarter to put all the pressure back on Whittlesea.
There would be no repeat of last week as the Eagles kicked a steadying goal to come away with an 8.16 (64)-7.6 (48) win.
Ramsay said there were a few flashbacks to last week early in the last quarter when St Mary’s reduced the margin under 10 points.
“I was having visions of last week but we were able to stop the slide to get the win,” he said. “We controlled things a little bit better when we needed to.
“There were some things we worked on like movement in the back half and moving into the forward line.”
Taidhg Bland and Clayton McCartney kicked two goals each for the Eagles.
Mitch Andrews at half back, Bland, Tom Falls, Riley Carter and Jaron Murphy were some of the standouts for the Eagles in the win.
Ramsay said they still had plenty of things to work on ahead of the preliminary final.
He said goalkicking the connection between the mids and forward line could be better.
The Eagles will face Macleod again after it lost the other semi final to Diamond Creek, which awaits the winner in the grand final. Diamond Creek won its semi final by 36 points.
Ramsay said while they lost that first game, the two sides have ended up in the same place anyway, playing for a grand final spot.
“There was no damage done,” he said. “We have the chance again and hopefully it will be more like the first half than the second half.
“If we get an early lead we’ll be trying to keep them on track.”
Meanwhile in division 1, Greensborough set up a clash with Heidelberg on Saturday with a grand final spot on the line.
Banyule will face Hurstbridge in the other semi final, with Hurstbridge beating Montmorency to continue on its season.
