West Preston-Lakeside produced one of their most impressive performances of the season in Sunday’s Melbourne Greyhounds Division 1 elimination final, outclassing Greensborough by 27 points at Preston City Oval.
A dominant eight goal to two first half set the tone for the Roosters’ 10.12 (72) to 7.3 (45) win, with the victory now making it eight consecutive triumphs at Preston City Oval for Rob Maiorana’s men.
Max Dreher was outstanding for the Roosters, not only playing some big roles in defence and midfield, but also keeping the dangerous Tom Bell goalless and without any impact on the contest.
Josh Caddy was also kept quiet, thanks to some terrific work from the West Preston-Lakeside midfield, led by Michael Ercolano.
Northern Bullants forward Jackson Barling excelled, leading the way in his side’s brilliant first half, kicking three majors and taking some solid contested marks.
Matthew Belbasis and Ethan Penrith stood tall in defence while Matthew Harman was again superb in the ruck.
The defeat spelled the end of Greensborough’s 2022 campaign. In what was an up and down season for Saade Ghazi’s side, they’ll be hopeful that next year, they can reproduce the scintillating football that got them to the big dance in 2019.
As it had been all year, the Boro’s defence was the most impressive facet of their game on Sunday. Nick Riddle, Angus Seivers and Matthew Haynes ensured the deficit didn’t increase any more than it did throughout the match, stopping multiple West Preston-Lakeside entries inside 50.
Tom Brindley was a shining light for the Boro with his ability to get around the ground and take some big marks, even playing some midfield minutes to try spark a comeback for his side. William Reinhold also worked hard throughout the afternoon, pinch hitting in the ruck and also drifting inside 50 to be a forward option when required.
Greensborough had seven individual goalkickers for the match, but they couldn’t find any consistency with their inside 50 entries, meaning the Roosters constantly collected rebound 50’s.
The Roosters looked on top early, kicking the opening three goals of the elimination final inside the first 12 minutes of play. They had multiple shots on goal in that period and probably could have stretched the margin to five or six majors had they kicked straight.
It allowed Greensborough to kick two goals against the run of play which brought the margin back to eight points.
But Barling’s second major just minutes from the siren gave West Preston-Lakeside a 15-point quarter time lead.
The Roosters continued to have all the control throughout the second quarter, kicking four unanswered goals to cause the margin to balloon out to 42 points by the main break.
It was West Preston-Lakeside’s transitional work that got them on top in the half, with their ability to chip the ball around before finding a target inside 50 a big reason towards their huge advantage.
The second half was a lot less action-packed as the Boro tried to peg their way back into the contest.
Despite losing the quarter by five points, the Roosters continued to be relentless in their defensive half, ensuring there would be no run of goals from their opponents as they took a 37-point lead into three quarter time.
Saade Ghazi’s men did what they could to make a game of it in the final term, and they almost did when they kicked three goals in four and a half minutes to reduce the deficit to 19 points at the 12-minute mark of the quarter.
But the Roosters made sure it was as close as they got to an incredible comeback, as Aidan Tilley converted a set shot in time on to secure the 27-point win for the reigning premiers.
