Tara Murray
It was a winning return to finals for Epping in the Northern Football League division 3 competition.
The Pingers last finals foray was back in 2017, the last season it was in division 3 before this season having gone up into division 2 in 2018.
Having made massive inroads under Brad Hollow this season, the Pingers are now through to the second week of finals,
After a slow start on Sunday against Old Eltham Collegians in the elimination final, the Pingers produced a solid performance to win, 11.18 (84)-11.6 (72).
Hollow said the win means heaps to everyone at the club after all they’ve been through.
“I found out it was seven years since they had played finals and seven years since they had won one,” he said.
“Everyone at the club is really excited and happy. We did what we needed to do to win.”
Hollow said it took them a quarter and half to get into the game.
He said they slowly started to change what they needed to in the second quarter and from there were able to go on with it.
The message was simple heading into the final quarter.
“Half way through the second quarter we got on top,” he said. “We started to do what we needed to.
“We’d done all the work up until now and we didn’t want to let it slip. We continued to play well and play our brand.”
Daniel Rakhlin kicked three goals for the Pingers, while Adrian Alfonsi chipped in with two goals.
Hollow said Liam Waldron, Daniel O’Kearney and Corey Middleton were the standouts while Leigh Judd had some key moments.
The coach said the win was for players like Judd and Lucas Aquilina who had stuck around the club through all the hard times.
“The aim was to reward the boys who have done all the hard work throughout the years,” he said.
“They’d done the hard work for no success. We wanted to get them some before they finish off.”
The win sets up a knockout semi final with old rival Mernda.
The Demons lost the qualifying final to Old Paradians, 14.8 (92)-12.12 (84).
“Mernda has been a rival now for many years, even when I played in 2001,” Hollow said.
“It’s been going a long time and it should be a good game.
“We know what we have to do to get the win, we have to make sure we do it.”
Old Paradians will play Fitzroy Stars for a spot in the grand final in the other final.
