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WHITE Hills defenders had front row tickets to the "Ben Weightman Show" in the third quarter of Sunday's HDFNL elimination final as the star Mount Pleasant forward ignited a match-winning surge for the Blues.
With Weightman capitalising on the outstanding work out of the middle by his team-mates, the Blues went from 20 points down to 30 up in a devastating burst that set up their 15.13 (103) to 14.10 (94) win at Lockington.
Just as LBU had done against Colbinabbin in the qualifying final the previous day, the Demons also squandered a solid position given five minutes into the third quarter they were leading 43-23 and had held the Blues to just three goals.
But then the Blues exploded and seemingly in the blink of an eye the game had swung completely in favour of Mount Pleasant.
Between the five and 20-minute marks of the third term the Blues slammed on 8.2 to no score in a scintillating period.
The Demons could barely get their hands on the ball throughout the onslaught, which started in the middle where Mount Pleasant massacred White Hills in the centre clearances.
And with some sharp delivery inside 50, Weightman was the biggest benefactor.
Weightman kicked five of the Blues' eight consecutive goals - three from marks, one from a free-kick and one in general play. Having also slotted one early in the game and one later in the final term, Weightman finished with a match-defining seven. He now has 86 for the year.
"We were beaten in the clearances in the first half, but in the third quarter it was 12-6 our way and we were able to get some really strong momentum, which is always hard to stop," Blues coach Darren Walsh said.
The vigour the Blues played with during the third quarter was encapsulated perfectly by the run-down tackle of Zebb Murrell on White Hills coach Sam Kerridge at half-back.
That free-kick began a chain of play that ended also ended with Murrell, who kicked the fifth goal of the Blues' eight in a row.
While it was Weightman who lit the game up in the second half, in the first it was White Hills' Jed Lamb, along with the clearance work of Kerridge, that proved the biggest threats to the Blues keeping their season alive.
The Demons had 6.6 on the board at half-time, of which Lamb had kicked 4.1, but he didn't add to his tally after the break.
The Blues led by as many as 32 points during the last quarter before late goals to White Hills trimmed the final margin to nine points, but despite the single figure deficit, time was always against them.
As well as Weightman, also playing a pivotal role for the Blues was the big presence of Dan Davie, who kicked three goals playing forward and pinch hitting in the ruck.
The Blues, who play LBU in next Sunday's first semi-final, have an injury concern out of the game in defender Fraser Cole (jarred knee).
Lamb (four), the strong-marking Kris Bedford (three) and William Kain combined for 10 of White Hills' 14 goals.
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