AFTER a long nine-year wait, Boort have finally booked their place back into the final four, after their 91-point win against St Arnaud at Lord Nelson Park.
The 7.10 (52) to 21.17 (143) result gives the Magpies a two game clearance over Wedderburn, and with only one more game to be played of the 2025 season, there isn’t enough time for the Redbacks to make a comeback.
At the start of the contest, it was James Keeble who would get things off the bat for the Magpies, kicking the first goal of the contest, then Boort’s top goal scorer Jhye Baddeley-Kelly would soon follow after, kicking two straight goals to make it a 20-point lead 10 minutes into the contest.
Boort would kick four more unanswered goals to lead the Saints by 47 points at the end of the first term.
St Arnaud captain Kurtis Torney would get the first goal for the Saints straight after quarter time and they would kick four goals to make it a 42 point game when the half-time siren sounded.
The Magpies would continue proceedings in the third quarter, kicking five goals with Baddeley-Kelly kicking two of them, while Jake Male and Luke Jackson kicked a goal each for the Saints.
Another six unanswered Magpie goals would follow in the fourth quarter, with the game in hand.
Owen Lowe would kick the last goal of the contest for St Arnaud before the final siren was sounded, confirming that Boort will be playing finals footy for the first time in nearly a decade.
Boort head coach Dale Cameron spoke with The Guardian on Sunday after the match — he was pleased with the performance but does believe there is still a lot of room for improvement.
“Yeah it wasn’t too bad, we got back into some sort of best form,” Cameron said.
“It still isn’t our very best, but with the past month we had some injuries so we really had to be at our best to face those top sides.
“Fair play to St Arnaud however, got to give them some credit, they gave a good old fight on the day.
“It wasn’t an easy day, they have a good structure and everything, but their polish just lets them down.”
Cameron was asked on whether he was happy with how the season went, and there was some mixed emotions from the head coach.
“Yes and no, I thought we started the year off really well, but injuries have seriously hurt us,” Cameron said.
“We have played alright but I still don’t think we have played at our very best.
“But I’m hoping we can get that best performance over the next two weeks.”
Baddeley-Kelly and Ethan Coleman both played some seriously good footy on the weekend; Cameron shared the praises around for both of them and the whole forward line as well.
“Over the past month, Jhye was playing in the midfield areas which is why he hasn’t kicked as many goals for a while,” Cameron said.
“So today it was great to see him play well again, and Coleman is certainly a lively one as well, he kicked 30-odd goals last season.
“He has been a big asset to us, and honestly we have a few different goal kickers too so that’s also been a big asset as well.”
Next week for Boot, they will be playing host for the last time this season, as they welcome in Charlton to Boort Park for the second time this season.
Cameron confirms he will be resting a few boys due to already confirming a spot in finals.
“Yes, we will be resting a few boys next week, especially considering we had a few injuries this season,” Cameron said.
“We are still waiting on a few boys to return for finals, but we did have our captain Jarrod Fitzpatrick return to the side after missing the past seven games so that was good.
“We were missing Jayden Dick and Kieren Jasic who I think is the best defender in the league, did his hammy against Birchip-Watchem so that hurt us defensively, so I’m hoping to get them both back for the finals campaign.
“But yeah we will definitely rest a few boys and give a few kids a run in the Ones this week.”
Across the grounds, Sea Lake Nandaly got the job done at home against Wedderburn by 65 points, killing all hopes for the Redbacks to make finals this season.
The 16.11 (107) to 6.6 (42) score line keeps the Tigers within a game from second place side Calder United, and with both sides facing off next week, it could determine who will play against Birchip-Watchem in the second semi-final.
It was Cruz O’Sullivan who got on the board first for Sea Lake Nandaly, but Wedderburn responded shortly afterwards with Jackson McEwen getting the first goal for the Redbacks.
The Tigers would respond back with four unanswered goals, two of which were kicked by co-coach of Bryce Delmenico.
Sea Lake Nandaly would continue the charge in the second quarter, kicking five goals, two of which were kicked by Max Cahoon, the Tigers’ top goal scorer, while Wedderburn only kicked two.
The Tigers’ lead would be extended out to 44 points by the half time siren was sounded.
It was cruise control for Sea Lake Nandaly from that point forward, six goals in the second half while the Redbacks only booted in three.
Next week for Wedderburn, they will play their final home game of the season against St Arnaud.
Over in Donald, Calder United destroyed the Royal Blues by 208 points, making it the biggest win in the Lions’ short history.
The 1.4 (10) to 32.26 (218) result boosted the percentage for Calder United, which will be important for next week if they end up losing to the Tigers.
Brett Barker would get things going for the Lions, kicking the first goal of the contest.
The Lions kicked eight unanswered goals in the first quarter, and it would extend to eleven unanswered goals, as Calder United would lead by 80 points at half time.
Another 10 unanswered goals were kicked in the third quarter, with Jack Exell kicking three goals in that quarter — he would end the contest with 10 goals.
Eventually Donald got their first and only goal of the contest, with Ben Arho taking the honours.
The Lions would finish the match kicking eleven goals in the final quarter.
Next week for Donald, they will be having their final match of the season at George Cartwright Oval to face the undefeated Birchip-Watchem Bulls.
The Bulls have won the past two matchups this season, winning by 223 points in the first contest and 104 points in the second matchup. Will there be a similar outcome in next weeks clash?
In the final contest of the round, it was Birchip-Watchem who got the better of Charlton, winning by a comfortable 171 points.
The 1.3 (9) to 27.18 (180) score makes it 15 wins from 15 matches for the Bulls.
Ben Edwards, who recently kicked his 100th goal last week, continued his goal scoring ways, as he kicked the first goal of the contest.
He would go on to kick 11 goals in the contest and bringing his total up to 116 goals.
He is now only 17 goals short from breaking a 45-year-old record of 133 goals scored in a season, which has been held by Alan Jackson from Wedderburn.
Edwards has kicked 23 goals in total against Donald this season; will he be able to break the record?
Birchip-Watchem kicked seven unanswered goals in the first term, and then they kicked yet another seven unanswered goals in the second term, as they led by 96 points at half-time.
Bailey Kemp would get the honours of kicking the one and only goal for Charlton in the third term, while the Bulls built the lead up to 134 points.
The game would end with the Bulls getting six more unanswered goals in the final quarter.
Edwards was top goal scorer for the match, but 50-gamer Nicholas Rippon kicked three goals along with Sam Simmons.
While Jacob Christie and George Addis both kicked two goals each.
The Navies will be on the road for the final time this season as they face Boort.
