BENDIGO
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PRELIMINARY FINAL
GOLDEN SQUARE v EAGLEHAWK – 3.10pm Saturday at QEO.
Golden Square and Eaglehawk will vie for a Bendigo league grand final berth, and if it’s anything like their last encounter it will be a beauty.
The Bulldogs and Hawks face off in the preliminary final at the QEO, with the winner to challenge Sandhurst for the flag.
They last met three weeks ago in a round 18 cliffhanger in which the Bulldogs held on to win by one point.
The Hawks will ride a wave of momentum into the preliminary final having already won two cut-throat finals against Kyneton (55) and Strathfieldsaye (6).
Centre half-forward Shaun Knott has been super in both games, while the club’s batch of youngsters have shown no stage fright in the cauldron of September that must have prospective coaches licking their lips at the prospect of taking over from Luke Monaghan.
Golden Square – which has won 20 of its past 21 against the Hawks – was unable to cope with the finals heat from Sandhurst in the second semi last week.
But Nick Carter’s Bulldogs are a proud group and will be hungry to redeem themselves from that 53-point hiding.
Last time: Golden Square 9.14 (68) d Eaglehawk 9.13 (67).
Since 1995: Golden Square 33; Eaglehawk 19.
NORTH CENTRAL
GRAND FINAL
CHARLTON v WYCHEPROOF-NARRAPORT – 2.30pm Saturday at St Arnaud.
CHARLTON:
AFTER serving a three-year apprenticeship, Charlton will be striving to become the grand final master on Saturday.
The Navies will tackle Wycheproof-Narraport in the North Central league grand final at St Arnaud.
Charlton has proven one of country footy’s hard luck stories in recent years.
The Navies have lost the past three grand finals by a combined 21 points – by eight points to St Arnaud last year, one point in extra time to Wedderburn in 2014 and 12 points to the Redbacks in 2013.
Charlton heads into the grand final with a 13-4 record for the season and four-straight wins.
The Navies qualified for the grand final with an 11-point victory over Wycheproof-Narraport in the second semi-final a fortnight ago, which gave the side a week off to prepare.
Inside 50 the Navies have had two players – Joseph McGrath (58) and Cody Gunn (53) – with 50-plus goals for the season, while Matt Giri (31) has also been lively in attack.
Those three players have combined for 142 of the 230 goals the Navies have kicked this year.
Since joining the Navies during the season from Strathfieldsaye, Jye Sandiford has been outstanding across half-forward and through the midfield.
In the 11 games Sandiford has played for the Navies he has been in their top two players in seven of them.
Kieran Sait has also been in good form in the back half of the season and was one of the Navies’ best in the second semi-final win over the Demons.
Captain Daniel Thiesz, a key component of the Navies’ back half, will play his 200th senior game for Charlton.
Thiesz is a member of the club’s last senior flag in 2009 won against Donald by 12 points.
The tireless Tim Nicolson has had a solid season in the ruck, while coach Aaron Walklate has produced another consistent year in the midfield, which was recognised in finishing runner-up in the Feeny Medal.
WYCHEPROOF-NARRAPORT:
WYCHEPROOF-Narraport will chase its first premiership since 2010 when it meets Charlton in Saturday’s North Central league grand final.
The Demons proved the clear standout side in the home and away season, but have had to take the long route through to the grand final.
Having finished three games clear on top of the ladder with a 15-1 record, the Demons were upstaged by Charlton by 11 points in a low-scoring second semi-final a fortnight ago.
But on the back of a brilliant second half against Birchip-Watchem in the preliminary final last week, the Demons now have a shot at the flag.
After scores had been level at half-time against the Bulls the Demons slammed on 11 goals to three to run away with a 49-point preliminary final victory.
While 42 players will take to the field on Saturday, without doubt the player who looms as the most influential is Demons’ star Corey Jones, who will be desperately craving to play in a flag with his home club.
Jones was unstoppable against the Bulls last week with a bag of 10 goals that gives him 88 for the season from 15 games – an average of 5.8 per game.
If the mercurial Jones has another day out, it’s hard to see the Demons being beaten.
As well as Jones, the Demons also have James Coatsworth (35 goals), Ricky Allan (26), Andrew Mead-Harding (26) and Adrian Pappin (26) to impact the scoreboard.
With Jones and Coatsworth, the Demons have two former winners of the Feeny Medal in their team.
Captain Boe Bish – a 2010 premiership player – has had a consistent season across half-back, Matt Riordan offers coach Julian Bull a swingman who can play at both ends, while Tim Holobowski has provided the Demons with plenty of grunt in the centre.
Ruckman Chris Howgate has been a handful for opposition with his height, and out on the wing Morgan Fawcett will be hoping to add a premiership medal to his Rising Star Award.
The Demons making the grand final with a 16-2 record has been a significant turnaround under new coach Bull given the club had missed the finals the previous two years.
VWFL PREMIER DIVISION
GRAND FINAL
BENDIGO THUNDER v DEER PARK – Noon Sunday at Coburg City Oval.
THE Bendigo Thunder are one win away from completing a perfect season.
The undefeated Thunder will clash with Deer Park in Sunday’s Victorian Women’s Football League premier division grand final at the Coburg City Oval.
It has been a stellar campaign from the Thunder after a messy start in which the club lost both its coach Craig Riddiford and president Chris Coughlan on the eve of the season.
In stepped Cherie O’Neill as the new coach and Bryan Coghlan as president and on-field, the Thunder has proven to be the benchmark side of the competition.
They head into the grand final 16-0 and with an average winning margin of 39 points.
Defensively, the Thunder has been superb in restricting the opposition to an average of only 21 points per game, while the most goals they have conceded has been just six.
Down the other end the Thunder boasts one of women’s footy’s rising stars in young gun Isabella Ayre.
The strong-marking teenager has only played nine games, but has been the competition’s most dominant forward with 36 goals, which includes four hauls of at least five.
Team-mates Erin Ross (22) and captain Emma Grant (18) also both rank among the top four goalkickers in the competition.
The Thunder have been able to keep a consistent team on the park this season, with 20 of Sunday’s 25 having played at least 12 of the 16 games.
The Thunder and Deer Park have met three times this season, and while the ledger is 3-0 in favour of Bendigo, the gap has closed each time from 29 points, to 12 to nine.
Deer Park has fought its way into the grand final from fourth position, having won a pair of knockout finals against Melbourne Uni and Port Melbourne Colts.
The Thunder won their way into the grand final with an 11-point win over Melbourne Uni at the QEO, but has since had to endure an extended break, with 21 days between the second semi-final win and Sunday’s grand final.
Since forming in 2011 the Thunder have won two premierships in 2012 and 2013 under former coach Russell Jeffrey, and have an overall win-loss record of 62-27-1.
MARYBOROUGH-CASTLEMAINE DISTRICT
GRAND FINAL
NAVARRE v CARISBROOK – 2.35pm Sunday at Princes Park.
For the third year in a row Navarre and Carisbrook will fight for the MCDFNL premiership in Sunday’s grand final at Maryborough’s Princes Park.
However, this year is different in that the Grasshoppers no longer have the air of invincibility that they had carried into the past two grand finals when they had been undefeated both years.
While the Grasshoppers are still a mighty fine football team, they have lost two games this year, one of which was to the Redbacks by 29 points in their last meeting.
History beckons for the Grasshoppers, who have the chance to become the first MCDFNL club to win four flags in a row.
As well as beating Carisbrook in the past two grand finals by margins of 61 and 55, the Grasshoppers also belted Lexton in 2013 by 101.
After losing its first two games of the season, Carisbrook has since won 15 of its past 16 and hasn’t had more than 54 points kicked against it in its past eight matches.
Statistically, both sides have almost identical average fors and against per game, and having beaten each other once during the home and away season, all the makings are there for a classic grand final.