SPOTSWOOD has surged into a sixth consecutive Western Region Football League division 1 grand final with a runaway 48-point victory over brave Hoppers Crossing in the preliminary final at Avalon Airport Oval on Saturday.
The Woodsmen have their sights set on a fifth flag in six years after overturning a 17-point deficit midway through the second term to book a blockbuster with Altona in the season decider back at Watton Street this Saturday.
Above all, the professionalism of the Woodsmen shone through. They went into the match without injured player-coach Chris O’Keefe and on the back of an energy-sapping loss to Altona seven days earlier.
No excuses were offered as every player did their bit to keep the incredible grand final streak alive.
“We didn’t have any passengers today,” O’Keefe said. “Everybody did their piece.”
The difference between the two sides was the vast experience the Woodsmen could draw upon from previous trips to the finals.
They are masters of the domain, level-headed in their approach and cool when the scoreboard began to count against them approaching half-time.
On the other side of the ledger, the Warriors are relative finals novices and produced an erratic performance that suggested as much.
They play an entertaining brand of football and probably had the lion’s share of the game’s highlight moments, but you had to take the good with the bad.
At critical stages, the Warriors committed undisciplined acts, their physicality away from the contest resulting in unnecessary turnovers and their verbal back chat only compounding the problems.
“The discipline side of things, I’m big on that,” Warriors coach David Mitchell said. “It was very disappointing there at some stages.”
The Warriors, so slick and energetic for the first 45 minutes of the match, could not find a second wind.
They crumbled at the first sign of the Woodsmen taking control and could not recover.
“We still have our lapses and that’s the maturity of the group,” Mitchell said. “Spotty, to their credit and their experience, played out the four quarters and that’s why the won.”
Kade Carey put on a show to remember for the Warriors.
The freakish forward booted four goals — two of which were contenders for goal of the finals. The first was an incredible snap across the body at the swimming pool end after he put in the initial hard yards to win possession. The other was a three-on-one situation where he was the one, nudged off one of the defenders then splitting the other two to retrieve the skidding ball and snap truly.
Jason Cloke was back to his best at the opposite end for the Woodsmen.
The former AFL player arrived this finals series when in the second quarter he ran with the flight of the ball to pluck a courageous mark. Cloke finished with four goals.
And then there were two. Spotswood, we all know about its grip of the competition, winning four of the past five premierships.
Altona, which has built with homegrown talent under Anthony Eames, will play in its first division 1 grand final.
This is one not to be missed – the champions v the minor premiers. Will the Woodsmen continue their remarkable run or can Altona add its name to the premiers’ honour roll?
All will be revealed at Avalon Airport Oval at 2.15pm on Saturday.
WRFL Finals
Division 1
Preliminary finals
Seniors: Spotswood 16.11 (107) d Hoppers Crossing 9.5 (59)
Reserves: Port Melbourne Colts 15.13 (103) d Spotswood 9.12 (66)
U18: Hoppers Crossing 13.13 (91) d St Albans 4.8 (32)
