Hawks’ David Olsen takes a strong pack mark while Pat McGrath, front, waits patiently for a rare crumb. 70587Bob McCallum clipped the wings of his Maffra opponent as Drouin booked a spot in Saturday’s grand final. 70587 Pictures: Donna Oates
By Ken Moore
DROUIN will play off in its second consecutive grand final after a 39-point victory over Maffra in the preliminary final at Warragul on Saturday.
On a perfect day for football — and the warmest afternoon of the season — the game featured three significant momentum swings.
In an amazing match, the Hawks kicked the first six goals, before they went missing for large parts of the second and third quarters.
Just when Drouin looked to be running on empty, it finished off the match with a flourish, kicking seven unanswered goals to turn a nine-point three-quarter time deficit into a morale boosting victory that will see it enter the grand final against Traralgon brimful of confidence.
Both teams went in hard for the ball early, and it was Drouin who fired the opening salvo when Chris Dunne produced a wonderful goal from an acute angle at the three-minute mark. Thanks to Andy Soumilas, Sam Proctor and Pat McGrath, the Hawks dominated on all scores for the next 15 minutes, but did not make the most of their supremacy until late in term when Daniel Barrand, Steve Ballingall, Sean Proctor, Bob McCallum and Matt Hedley steered through majors to give Drouin a commanding 40-point lead at quarter time. The margin could have been far more, because the Hawks had 10 more scoring shots on goal and looked to be cruising towards a big win.
In the second quarter, Maffra came out with renewed vigour and terrific midfield drive from Matt Johnston, Daniel O’Brien and Gary Jones changed the course of the game. Their repeated forward thrusts gave key forward Daniel Stubbe the opportunity to show his wares – and he duly delivered, kicking three of six Eagle goals for the quarter which pegged the deficit back to only 11 points at the main break.
In a thrilling third-quarter that saw five lead changes, Maffra continued to press hard and breach the Hawk defence on a regular basis, and with another three goals by Stubbe, who was leading the Hawk backline a merry dance, the Eagles went into the three-quarter time break with a nine point lead and importantly, all the momentum.
However, Drouin responded to the challenge emphatically and with a creative goal by exciting Gippsland Power Tiwi Islander Anthony Tipungwuti, two more majors by the elusive Dunne and a third goal to Barrand, the Hawks surged 20 points in front by midway through the last quarter. Thereafter, Drouin had little to fret about and it wrapped up the game with another three unanswered goals to win in a very convincing manner.
The Hawks victory was largely due to its hard working midfield unit of McGrath, Proctor, Soumilas and Barrand, the latter who also kicked three goals. Ruckman McCallum dominated the taps out and was very good around the ground and David Olsen provided accountable defence and rebound from behind the centre in the second-half. Dunne (four goals) was busy across the forward line and Ballingall and Damien Carmody made telling contributions at both ends of the field.
“We have worked hard over the last six weeks, and if we were thereabouts at three-quarter time I was confident we had the legs to run over them,” a relieved Drouin coach Ben Soumilas said.
After striving hard to get back into the game for two quarters, Maffra tired in the last quarter and simply couldn’t last the distance. Stubbe (six goals) was outstanding and showed why he is one of the premier forwards in the league. Johnston ran hard and pumped the ball forward, Glen Semmens was solid down back and midfielders Daniel O’Brien, Jed Costigan and Gippsland Power boys Danny Butcher and Jack Johnstone were prominent in the second half.
MEANWHILE, Drouin reserves bowed out of the premiership race after a 36-point loss to Maffra.
The Eagles jumped out of the blocks with four first-quarter goals and thereafter was never in any serious threat of losing.
Maffra had too much forward firepower led by Jason Langshaw (five goals) and Nick Horsford and both had a good foil in former AFL Fremantle tall Brent Connolly, who was overlooked in the seniors due to an injury that sidelined him over the last month. Tom Tudor was lively through the middle and James Read offered good resistance in the back half.
Drouin onballers David Miller, Nick Burr and Chris Berzins won plenty of disposals, half-backs Chris Platt and Vince Meehl swept the ball out of defence a number of times, and in the last line of defence, Alan Miller chopped off many threatening Eagle attacks.
THE under-18 match was a replay of last season’s grand finalists, between Traralgon and Leongatha.
This time Traralgon reversed the result, beating Leongatha by 27 points to book a spot against the undefeated Bairnsdale on Saturday. The league newcomers will also be represented in the under-16 grand final, after it pipped Traralgon by four points in a heartstopper in the early morning game.
