Thomastown tried to treat its semi-final against Reservoir like just another home-and-away match in division 3 of the Northern Football League on Saturday.
And the result followed the script of the Bears’ season, with their run and carry too much in the second half, delivering a comprehensive 75-point win, 22.13 (145) to 10.10 (70).
But, unlike a home-and-away match, the win sent the Bears to a grand final in two weeks.
PICTURE GALLERY | Thomastown v Reservoir
Thomastown coach Dean Sinclair said the end result was bigger than they anticipated.
“We played extremely well,” he said.
“It was a tight tussle in the first half before we ran away with it in the second.
“We’ve been pretty much doing that all season.
“We know we have the fitness and we … can run out games really well.”
Sinclair said the most pleasing thing was his team’s even spread.
“We had winners across the ground,” he said.
“Andrew Lozanovski and Lukas Fellows led the back line, who all played really well. Daniel Chadwick and David Folino in the midfield were good, while Michael Khoury kicked six goals.”
Sinclair said the side would follow its routine as much as possible during the week off.
“We’ll just continue as if we had a game this weekend,” he said. “We’ll train Saturday morning instead of playing and watch the preliminary final to see who we play the following week.
“Four or five of our players played in our last grand final in 2008.
“But it will be a first taste of grand final footy for most of our players. They’re pretty excited.”
In the grand final, the Bears will face either Reservoir or South Morang, who meet in the preliminary final at Epping Reserve on Saturday.
South Morang won through to the prelim with a 30-point win over Watsonia, 12-20 (92) to 8-14 (62).
They led by only one point at the final change, but kept the Saints goalless in the
final quarter, while kicking five of their own.
Matthew Campbell, Lachlan Buckley and Daniel Watson each kicked two for the Lions, for whom Nicholas Johnston, Buckley and Campbell were best afield.
For more pictures of the weekend’s football action go to www.northern.starweekly.
com.au.
