PYRAMID Hill are the first team through to this year’s Loddon Valley grand final after defeating minor premiers Marong by 13 points in Saturday’s second semi-final at Bridgewater.
A second-half onslaught, where the Bulldogs kicked seven goals to three, helped set up the 10.7 (67) to 7.12 (54) win, with the Panthers now forced to come through this Saturday’s preliminary final to qualify for their third straight grand final.
Marong will meet Bridgewater in this week’s knockout final after the Mean Machine defeated a heartbroken Bears Lagoon-Serpentine by one point in Sunday’s first semi-final, with the Bears’ premiership drought to extend into a 30th season after being dumped from the finals by the 12.8 (80) to 11.13 (79) loss.
The league’s longest drought of 74 years is one step away from ending, however, with Pyramid Hill’s win putting them on the precipice of glory for a second year in a row.
Having lost last year’s decider to the Panthers by 16 points, the Bulldogs have turned the tables on the rivals this season, firstly breaking the Panthers long-standing winning streak in round 12 before following up with Saturday’s win.
It was a performance that almost wasn’t, according to Pyramid Hill coach Nathan Fitzpatrick, with his side managing to stay within touch at half-time despite Marong controlling much of the play in the first half.
“To be honest, our first half wasn’t great, but the promising thing was that we were lucky that we were only two goals down at half-time,” Fitzpatrick told the Gannawarra Times.
“We weren’t playing the brand of football that we wanted to play but to the boys’ credit, I didn’t have to do too much talking at half-time, they knew what they needed to do and they were all saying it themselves.
“It was good to come out after half-time and I thought our third and fourth quarters were really good.
“There was a tricky breeze that made it hard to generate ball movement at times and we got a bit stuck kicking down the line, but once we became a bit braver and started coming back through the middle, we got some good scoring opportunities.”
Marong coach Linton Jacobs held a similar opinion to Fitzpatrick, with his side’s inability to make the most of their opportunities in the opening half eventually coming back to bite them.
“It was two really good teams having a real crack at it and unfortunately it didn’t go our way,” Jacobs said.
“I thought we were really good, certainly in the first half, but we didn’t take our chances in the second quarter against the breeze when we kicked three or four points, and we had several gettable shots.
“I thought we were on top and had good momentum in that second quarter, but we just didn’t finish off our good work.
“To Pyramid Hill’s credit, they started really well in the third quarter, and we were a bit slow to get going when they were kicking to the scoring end, we just didn’t capitalise when we had it, they kicked three goals and we didn’t score and that was potentially the game right there.
“To our boys’ credit we kept running out the game which is sort of a strength of ours and we got within a goal with six minutes to go, but we just couldn’t pinch that back, (Pyramid Hill) played really well and won the bigger moments in the second half.”
Steven Gunther was dominant around the stoppages for the Bulldogs and was one of their better players, along with Gavin James who provided plenty of run and drive from half-back with Tom McGregor, and Brad Ladson, Jayden Cowling and Ben Knight were also among Pyramid Hill’s better players.
Matt Riordan and Matt Willox were both strong down back for Marong, while Michael Bradbury was also influential in the ruck, with Todd Davies keeping gun Bulldogs onballer Brodie Carroll quiet in a strong contribution.
In Sunday’s elimination final, Bridgewater held on in a see-sawing final quarter to claim victory and a meeting with Marong in Inglewood this weekend.
After trailing by 21 points at half-time, Bears Lagoon-Serpentine hit back in the third quarter reduce the deficit to just three points at the final change, setting up a grandstand finish to the knockout final.
Andrew Collins kicked five goals and Lachlan Sharp four goals in the win, with the Mean Machine taking momentum into the preliminary final having won their past four matches.
Joseph Mayes, Lee Coghlan, Jonathon Coghlan, Ben Derrick, Jake Rusbridge and Hamish Terry were among the better players for Bridgewater, with Josh Taig, Ross Turner, Justin Laird and Nash Kemp the best for the Bears.
