Caroline Springs had never played a senior final in the WRFL, but you wouldn’t have known it on Sunday.
The Lakers were like seasoned pros on the big stage, dismantling Glen Orden by 109 points in the division two first semi final at Dempster Park.
Lakers football manager Marc Raak told Star Weekly it was a memorable weekend for his club.
“We’re over the moon,” Raak said. “We got our reserves into the grand final and for the seniors to go out and get a result like that was fantastic. We’re in a prelim now, we’re playing on a bit of confidence and we’ve had a couple of good weeks prior to this, so hopefully we can go out and win one more game and be in a grand final.”
Caroline Springs did not have it all their own way in the game, but it was not far off.
The Lakers had to work hard in tough conditions to take a 32-point lead into half time.
A second half blitz, which saw the Lakers piled on 19 goals to six, quickly turned a competitive game into a triple figure stroll.
Mathew Sutton (seven goals), Jason DeGabriele (six), Brian Lake and Nathan Knuckey (three goals) feasted on goals in the rout.
DeGabriele was arguably the best on ground, starting with his dominant performance in the midfield that set up the game before moving to attack to be a dangerous weapon in front of goal late.
“He played the first half on the ball and had one or two goals to half time,” Raak said. “Then we had the luxury of giving some young people the chance to go through the middle and Jase went forward and used his one-on-one body work, out-muscling people to kick goals.
“He got close attention all day but he just wore that off and kept going. He’s been in sensational form all year, he’s a class act and a smokey tip to win the comp medal in division 2.”
Others to impress for the Lakers were Chris Bestall, Matthew Chadwick and Stefan Caterino.
Caroline Springs has set up a preliminary final clash with North Footscray at Dempster Park this Saturday.
The Lakers will go in as slight underdogs, but there has not been too much to separate the top-three teams in division 2 this season.
“They’re always a tough opponent,” Raak said. “We’ve beaten them once this year and they’ve beaten us twice. They are a talented side and we expect them to bounce back [from Saturday’s second semi final loss to Yarraville-Seddon] really strong.
“We can’t be more prepared, we’ve done everything right, we’ve got a healthy list and no doubt this is going to be a huge game for both clubs, so hopefully we’re on the right end of it at the end of the day.”
