THE Hay Lions will be one of the teams vying for a piece of Golden Rivers history after defeating Ultima by 25 points in Saturday’s second semi-final.
The Lions are the first team through to this year’s decider and will play the winner of this Saturday’s preliminary final between Ultima and Moulamein, after the Swans ended Murrabit’s time in the Golden Rivers with a 33-point win.
Hay’s 12.16 (88) to 10.3 (63) victory puts them just one win away from avenging last year’s one-point grand final loss, with Lions co-coach James Moran ecstatic to take the direct path through to this year’s decider.
“We’re stoked to go through and have the week off, that was our plan especially knowing that we have a few boys that are a bit sore, like everyone does at this time of the season,” Moran said post-match.
“A prelim final is a tough, physical game of footy, so to avoid that holds us in really good stead we feel.
“We always knew it was going to be a tough tussle against Ultima, they’re a very good football side so we were happy to come away with the win.”
With scores tied at half-time, it was the third quarter when Hay ultimately put their foot to the floor, with a five-goal to two term seeing them open up a 20-point lead at the final change.
From there, the Lions were never headed, with Moran pleased with his players response after half-time when the match was on the line.
“I think we were able to hit our targets really well, but we also had a plan to try and pressure them because they have such good foot skills as well,” Moran said.
“We wanted to keep our pressure up the whole game and try to limit their uncontested ball.
“In the first half, and the second quarter especially, we let them get too much uncontested footy and they spread really well and we probably weren’t accountable enough.
“We spoke about that at half-time and we were able to tighten up a bit and not give them too many free easy kicks and that helped us control possession a bit more and get the ball going our way.
“Our third quarters haven’t really been our best all year and they (Ultima) kicked two goals early on in the third.
“They kicked a goal right on half-time which gave them lots of energy, but we came back together as a group at the break and really just stuck to the positives.
“There were things that we could work on but it was still positive and we were really happy with how the boys responded and tried to control the tempo a bit little bit more and how we were able to play the game on our terms and not theirs.”
While Ultima’s Dustin Burns finished as the game’s leading goal scorer, it was the Lions spread of goal kickers that proved decisive, with Jack Headon, Dean Aylett, Dylan Collis, Declan Watson and Jacob Watson all kicking two majors each.
But it was the performance of onballer Fergus Cattanach which garnered special praise from Moran after the match.
“‘Ferg’ (Cattanach) was unbelievable, he often gets overshadowed by his brother a little bit, but his ability to run back into defence was pivotal,” Moran said.
“He (Cattanach) was just everywhere and he has elite fitness, and his brother Jack got plenty of it too.
“Jacob Watson was also really good considering he was pretty crook and had the flu all week, as did Joel Crocker, who was also crook and toiled away really well.
“Dean Aylett was also really good when the ball hit the ground and Dylan Collis is just a classy player, his defensive mindset, while still getting plenty of the footy, was really good.”
Ultima on the other hand were well served by Martyn Cooper, Brad Anderson, Tom Isma, Jake Foster and Burns, with the Roos having to front up again this weekend against an in-form Moulamein following their impressive win on Sunday over Murrabit.
It was the Swans fourth consecutive win and came on the back of a dominant third quarter performance.
After leading by just seven points at half-time, the Swans blew the game wide open with a six-goal to one third term, giving them an unassailable 37-point lead at three-quarter time.
While Murrabit failed to give up on their season over the final half an hour, they proved no match for Moulamein, who went on to record a comfortable 16.11 (107) to 10.14 (74) victory.
Brett Kennedy continued his ominous form up forward for the Swans with five majors, with Josh Wills, Blake Launer, Tobie Richardson, George Austin and Xander Hartland also among Moulamein’s better players.
Jack Shannahan and Patrick Bryan each finished with three goals for the Blues, with Shannahan best on for Murrabit, along with James Stewart, Bailey Pengelly, Rhys Carmichael and Matthew Moon.
