By Nick Creely
SOUTH EAST FOOTBALL NETBALL LEAGUE
REVIEW – QUALIFYING FINAL
It’s been brewing for weeks now.
The much anticipated blockbuster final between great rivals who have a storied, at times intense rivalry.
And Berwick delivered in a performance glittered with suffocating pressure, slick ball use and a clinical nature in attack led superbly by competition leading goal kicker Harry Money, who was at his mercurial best.
It’s likely to send a shiver down the neck of the other finalists – the Wickers are now in top gear, and look out!
They’ve spoken about the build up to finals, the expectation, and making sure they get into a position to explode. And they’ve done just that, and perhaps even more.
With a fast start pivotal to the outcome of the game, the Wickers got the perfect start, with running machine Luke Sheppard producing two moments of magic in the opening eight minutes to boot the first two goals of the contest.
Sheppard’s second was simply sublime, with his banana kick sailing straight through the big sticks. It was a sign that the Wickers had arrived at their best footy, and weren’t intending to stop.
As the quarter wore on, the Wickers’ pressure around the ball and ability to move the footy and change the angles was also going to yield scoreboard damage.
Harry Money slotted his first of six after a laser like pass by Sheppard, and suddenly, Tim Gunn and Trent Thomas went bang, bang!
It was an unanswered five goal headstart that was driven by their desperation at the contest. More importantly, key midfield cogs in Travis Tuck, James Magner and Bryce Rutherford were running all over the ground and having an immense impact in the absence of Madi Andrews, and Michael Riseley was on top in his duel with Marc Holt, who wasn’t helped by some pretty sloppy ball use going forward.
Young defender Will Arthurson also showed composure beyond his years, and bravely went back with the flight on several occasions.
Addressing his players at quarter time, Berwick coach Stewart Kemperman urged his players to continue to pressure and use the ground to their advantage.
“The game probably didn’t settle until the last 10 minutes or so – the longer the game goes, it will open up more and give us the opportunity to use the width of the ground,” he said to his players.
“We’ve been on the surge a bit, and that’s great, but if we lower our eyes there’s some great pockets of space.
“There’s been some terrific efforts in this quarter boys – that’s our brand of footy, don’t go away from that. It’s one box ticked so far, let’s tick another one.”
Within minutes of resumption, Sheppard launched a long bomb to kick his third, and capitalizing on the Eagles’ turnovers – particularly off half-back – cut them to ribbons to open up a 45-point half time lead, with Steve O’Brien’s side unable to score a major in the opening hour.
Young jet Zak Roscoe gave the Eagles a pulse after scoring in the first minute after half time, but the Wickers were running in waves, with Travis Tuck picking up seven clearances in the quarter alone to give Money plenty of chances to excite, booting two for the quarter and combining superbly with Tim Gunn (three goals).
Holt eventually warmed into the contest to snare three second half goals, but the Eagles couldn’t find enough avenues to goal as the Wickers ran out the game in utter control, but the likes of Anthony Vella, Kirk Dickson and Corey Ellison were valiant all day.
On a day where the Wickers put in a commanding team effort as they await their next challenge in Narre Warren, Kemperman admitted things clicked for his side.
“We’re still looking for our best footy, but that’s probably one of our better efforts, particularly in the first half. That set us up, and that level we brought was critical,” he said.
“It was a good start to the finals, for sure.”
Negating a star studded Cranbourne forward line led by Holt is no easy task, but Kemperman praised his team for its immense defensive efforts, and pointed to a rare goalless first half for the Eagles as a major tick.
“They’re incredible with their talent up forward, so we were thrilled with that as a starting point, and to go that far into the game not conceding a goal, I’m pretty rapt with it,” he said.
But taking away the Eagles’ running game was crucial, and Kemperman believes the work done up the ground made life for his defenders much easier.
“It’s important in terms of defending them – if you take away that free running pace brand of football that they play, you give yourself a better opportunity to defend their forwards,” he said.
“The quality of the footy that’s going in to their forwards is compromised if you can shut them down – that’s really important, and the more pressure on them the more opportunity you’ll get to turn the footy over.
“That sort of worked out for us on the weekend.”
Special praise was deservedly put upon Money, who kicked six of the best on the finals stage. Kemperman isn’t surprised.
“We’ve put in a lot of work with Harry – he generally gets a lot of shots on goal, and he converted more which is a good sign for him,” he said.
“He works incredibly hard at training, at goal kicking and on his craft, so it’s good to see him get some good reward for effort, and on a big stage as well.”
Their next challenge in Narre Warren will be made easier with Kemperman confirming both Madi Andrews and Jo West will take their place in the side after slower than expected returns from injury.
“If it was a grand final, I would have selected them – despite their nagging and constant texting, and trying to prove themselves, I thought it was just another week away,” he said.
“With an extra week anyways, I didn’t feel the need to go full guns blazing, and we gave them an extra week – they’ve been constantly texting me, so they should be right.”
And as a blockbuster semi-final looms near with the Magpies, Kemperman is ensuring his players keep a level head.
“You can’t take the finals for granted, it’s all about the process, rather than the outcome, and that’s how we go about it – as I said last week, all we’ve done is give ourselves another opportunity, and it’s our job to execute our game, and our brand,” he said.
Berwick 16.4 (100)
Cranbourne 7.7 (49)
