Deer Park booked its place in the Western Region Football League grand final in emphatic fashion on Saturday, smashing Werribee Districts by 46 points.
The 13.14 (92) – 7.4 (46) victory at Altona’s Grant Reserve gave Deer Park the chance to complete a rare feat in any form of football, with the club aiming for a third successive division 1 premiership.
Deer Park coach Marc Bullen was rapt to have qualified for another grand final.
“It was definitely one of our best performances for the year,” he said.
“We’ve been preparing ourselves for this time of the season from quite a fair way back.
“We’ve had some valuable additions come into the side and we really wanted to focus on what Werribee do well.
“That was in their tackling pressure and physical presence around the ball. We wanted to match them in those areas and beat them in those areas.”
Wet and windy conditions didn’t bother the Lions, who quickly took control of the match.
Deer Park booted four goals in the opening quarter and kept Werribee scoreless to go into the first break with a 29-point lead.
Although Werribee finally hit the scoreboard in the second term, it did nothing to halt the Lions’ dominance.
Deer Park added another five goals in the second quarter to extend the lead to 42 points and have the match iced by half-time.
“The first quarter was some of the best football I’ve seen this side play in my three years as coach,” Bullen said.
“They’re a great side, Werribee; they finished in the top three for a reason.
“We hit a season high for pressure acts in the match, which I was really happy with.”
Bullen said he believed a loss to Hoppers Crossing in the final home-and-away round had helped jolt his side into life.
“The guys had two weeks to stew over that performance,” he said.
“The way we performed as a group against Werribee was fantastic and we hope we can cut and paste that in two weeks.”
Deer Park will now have a week off while it awaits its grand final opponent.
The Lions will play the winner of the preliminary final between Werribee Districts and Hoppers Crossing, who will meet at Avalon Airport Oval at 2.15pm on Saturday.
The Warriors booked their spot in the match with a 11.12 (78) – 7.4 (46) win against Spotswood on Saturday, bringing an end to the Woodsmen’s season.
It’s the first time in eight years that Spotswood has not qualified for the grand final.
