Sport
31 August, 2023
MCDFNL Finals — Week Two Football Previews
Week two of the finals sees action return to Princes Park, with Natte Bealiba, Navarre, Trentham and Maldon fighting to keep their season alive. Semi-Final 1 — Natte Bealiba V Navarre Those old Lexton League rivals, Natte Bealiba and Navarre, lock...
Week two of the finals sees action return to Princes Park, with Natte Bealiba, Navarre, Trentham and Maldon fighting to keep their season alive.
Semi-Final 1 — Natte Bealiba V Navarre
Those old Lexton League rivals, Natte Bealiba and Navarre, lock horns on Saturday with everything on the line for both clubs. Expect fireworks.
So much emotion is evoked regularly when these two teams meet, and while this meeting has belonged to Navarre in their last four games, Natte will be desperate to avoid going out in straight sets.
For three quarters last week, Natte kept Harcourt extremely honest, and were able to make a game of it at half time, sitting just three points behind.
Unfortunately, as the league is well aware against the Lions — and has been for 25 straight games now — a four-quarter effort is required to beat them, and the sending off of Tom Broadbent early in the third term was certainly a game-changer, with the Lions rattling six consecutive goals after that to put the game away and secure their passage to a preliminary final.
With leading goalkicker Will Holt still out of the team last Saturday, one might feel the Swans are still a little incomplete up forward. However, playing-coach Trent Mortlock led well from the front, kicking three goals, while Jordan Fraser added two last week.
Zac Mortlock was a good leader for the club under fierce Harcourt pressure, while Joshua Grant and Callum Harte also played well.
Jye Mortlock has had a brilliant 2023 season, but was well-held by the Lions last week, and will be desperate to ensure the Swans stay alive.
They will have their hands full against a Navarre outfit which has been in good form in the last month, losing narrowly to Trentham, then winning their past three games by an average of just over 86 points.
That included their 73-point triumph over Newstead last week, which was highlighted by an utterly dominant first quarter which saw the Hoppers pile on seven goals to one behind in the opening term to end the contest very early.
Cody Driscoll showed for the second year in succession that the elimination final is his domain, kicking seven goals, following on from his 15-goal haul in the corresponding game last year against Dunolly.
Josh Fowkes had a dominant outing throughout the afternoon, while Billy Hawkes has continued his good form since he returned to the club as a mid-season signing, having been named in the best in four of his seven games, including his past three games.
While the Hoppers finished in fifth position, they have certainly proven that they very much remain a threat to the established order of the top four, and no one has felt the brunt of that more in recent years than Natte Bealiba, who will now have to turn around some recent history to keep their season alive.
Since their premiership success in 2019, the Swans have lost their past four, as mentioned previously. Early in 2021, an inaccurate Swans kicked 5.14 to go down by 20 points, before losing twice — convincingly — in 2022, by 37 points in round one, and 29 points in round 14 — kicking just two goals for the day.
This season, the two teams have met just once, on what was a soggy round 11 day at Natte Yallock. Navarre had complete control of the first half, scoring five goals to two to take a 22-point lead, and despite only scoring one more goal in the second half, it was more than enough to see them hold out the Swans and win by 13 points.
That game was also the second-lowest scoring game of the year, with 77 points in total scored, trailing just the Swans’ round one encounter with Dunolly (53 points). That suggests that scoring could be a premium this weekend, with both teams scoring the fewest points of the six teams remaining, with Navarre averaging 88 points per game, and Natte averaging a tick over 89 points per game, including both teams’ respective finals last week.
Semi-Final 2 — Trentham V Maldon
Three seasons in a row, Trentham have finished in the top two and yet find themselves in a semi-final, and expect them to try to take their anger out on a Maldon team that have greatly improved in 2023.
There is no doubt some frustration from Clive Raak and his men that they haven’t been quite able to find the formula to make a big week one finals statement in their past three attempts.
Last week, they had their opportunities in the opening term against Carisbrook, generating plenty of inside 50s and winning the territory battle, yet they had just one behind to show for it.
Instead, Carisbrook made the most of their entries inside 50 after absorbing the storm, and kicked two goals from six scoring shots, before taking control of the game to kick a further five goals to two in the second term to lead by 38 points.
However, such is the beauty of earning the double chance, that Trentham now have an opportunity to reset again, and a win over Maldon will take them to a preliminary final meeting with Harcourt, who the Saints have had some cracking meetings with in the recent past.
Joel Cowan played a mighty game last week, despite the 50-point loss, and again looks set to be one of the key players in the Berry-Powell Trophy race in 2023.
Captain Dylan Holden was another who performed well last week, while Taylor Ford also played well.
They’ll now take on a Maldon team who have revitalised themselves quite well this season, making the leap to being the team most capable of upsetting the top five apple cart of Harcourt, Carisbrook, the Saints, Natte Bealiba and Navarre.
An exciting elimination final against Lexton saw the Dons win quite impressively, wearing the best of what the Tigers had to throw at them, especially in the final term, when the Tigers piled on three goals in the opening handful of minutes to hit the front.
Maldon were able to reset from there, and then found they were able to garner scoring opportunities at will, while restricting Lexton’s running game, and eventually scored an eight-point win.
Jordon Collins was outstanding last week, while coach Damien Lock was complimentary of the likes of defenders Billy Miller and Adam Robinson.
Brodie Leonard-Shannon continued his good form in the recent past, and was able to kick three goals, while Seb Greene has enjoyed an excellent season.
Recent history has belonged to Trentham, winning their past seven encounters going back to 2015. However, in recent years, Maldon have done quite well in restricting the Saints’ scoring power.
In 2022, the Saints were the second best scoring team, averaging 133 points per game, yet Maldon were able to hold them to 95 points.
This year, that has slightly dipped to 131 points per game, yet Maldon did a good job in their round 10 encounter to hold them to just 76 points.
On that occasion, the Saints looked like they were going to enjoy a big victory when they kicked four goals to one in the opening term to take a 24-point lead. But Maldon, to their credit, fought back over the next two terms to keep it to a manageable 16 points at half time and 25 at the final change, before three goals to nil in the last term made it a 44-point win to the Saints.
The onus will be on the likes of Jake Keogh, Sam Winnard and Cooper Webber-Mirkin to ensure that they are able to take their opportunities early on in the piece to ensure that the Saints are able to control the pace of play throughout, and ensure that they are still in the hunt for their first premiership since 1994.