Avoca have ended the fairytale run of Talbot, moving one step closer to well-and-truly stamping their authority on a Dog dynasty.
The ball movement and goal circle trust between Avoca’s powerful midcourt and the combination up front of Maddy Egan and Gina Beavis was too much to handle for a brave Talbot, who threw everything to the cause, but were unable to mount a challenge.
The Hawks did keep the Bulldogs honest in the opening few minutes of the game as they stayed with the reigning champions early on, but it was towards the end of the first quarter where Avoca really started to put the foot down, and finished with a 16-goal to eight term to lead by eight goals at the first change.
The Bulldogs’ finish to the first term gave them the impetus to continue on their merry way, and they were able to be super efficient in front of goal by doing so as well, with Egan and Beavis both expertly positioning themselves underneath the ring, while the work of Lucy Howell, Stacey Blair and Elisa Pica helped the Bulldogs control the midcourt.
Egan simply wouldn’t miss — scoring a perfect 13 goals from 13 attempts, while Beavis scored seven of her eight shots at goal to allow the Bulldogs to enjoy a 20-goal to eight quarter, leading by 20 goals at the main break.
To Talbot’s credit, they were able to enjoy a really good quarter in the third term, as they had some good moments of connection.
Eleisha Phelps shuffled the board around in order to try claw their way back, with Charlotte Roche thrown into centre, with Jacqui Wardlaw shifting to wing defence and Georgie Finch playing at wing attack.
To their credit, it delivered 11 goals for the term, with Dom Roche proving as efficient as ever, scoring all nine of her attempts.
But the Bulldogs were also able to continue building on their lead, scoring 17 goals as they led 53-27 at the final change.
The Hawks were hoping to continue keeping the Bulldogs honest, but these Dogs are a ruthless team, and were determined to put the foot down once again to stamp their authority as favourites to secure a third flag in four attempts.
A 23-goal to nine last quarter did the trick as the Bulldogs extended their winning margin to 40 goals.
Egan was terrific under the ring, scoring 51 goals from 54 shots, and proving to be wildly efficient as ever, while Beavis added 25 goals of her own.
For the Hawks, Dom scored 28 goals, with Isabelle Rustman and Phelps scoring four goals each.
Egan says the chance to go back-to-back continues to drive the Dogs, and has done so ever since their opponent this weekend played party poopers in their last attempt to go back to back in 2022.
“It’s unreal. Losing in 2022 made us very hungry to come back and we’ve been hungry ever since,” she said.
In the meantime, Egan was relishing what she believed was the Bulldogs’ best four-quarter effort of the season.
“We finally found a four-quarter effort. I think finals is where we like to do that, I’d rather that than at the start of the season,” she said.
Egan said the priority would be to rest players, while in a bit of a catch-22, it will be a slightly easier week from a coaching perspective, with both her C and B grade teams knocked out in the preliminary final stage.
“It will be tough. We had a good game with Natte during the year. We played them in the first round and we haven’t seen them since, so it will be good to come up against them,” she said.
“We will rest some bodies and get towards next week.”
Regardless, Egan’s message is clear — the B grade team will be ready to step up to the plate if needed, although she has also reported a clean bill of health from their win.
“We are fortunate to have a strong B grade team as well, so it hasn’t mattered who is out, we could put one of our B graders up and they are really strong too, so it doesn’t change the dynamics of the team too much,” she said.
Egan paid tribute to the midcourt’s ball movement, allowing her and Beavis to dominate under the ring.
“The girls make it easy to get the ball, and we don’t have to work too hard. Gina and I have grown over the last four seasons. We have one more week and we’ll see how we go,” she said.