A relentless North Heidelberg outfit put Hurstbridge to the sword in their Melbourne Greyhounds Division 1 elimination final, winning by 57 points at Preston City Oval.
The Bulldogs looked to be in control for the entire afternoon, with their five unanswered goals in the second term proving to be the catalyst in the 17.15 (117) to 8.12 (60) triumph.
Their first finals victory since the 2019 Qualifying Final, North Heidelberg now set up a scintillating first semi-final clash with Montmorency next week, meanwhile the Bridges’ first ever finals contest in the top flight ended what has still been one of the best campaigns in the club’s history.
The powerful duo of Liam Hunt and Jesse Tardio proved to be too strong to handle for the young Hurstbridge midfielders, with the pair leading the way in every stoppage and even up delivering up forward when necessary, as they combined for three goals.
Meanwhile both Jhye Baddeley-Kelly and Majak Daw returned to the Bulldogs lineup and were almost impossible to stop inside 50, kicking four majors apiece.
Michael Florance and Joshua Hamilton were also other notable contributors for Jason Heatley’s men.
Mitchell Hymus and Will Cookson were standouts for Hurstbridge, but their side found it difficult to get any consistency going throughout the match.
Cooper Barbera and Bailey Jordan looked to be the Bridges’ most lively forwards when the game was still in the balance, while Harry O’Brien, Mitchell Moschetti and Jake Wild battled hard all afternoon.
Joel Cordwell’s side had a promising start to the match, keeping the ball inside their attacking half for the opening five minutes of the game, but could only muster two behinds.
North Heidelberg then started to settle into the match and made their scores count, with both Baddeley-Kelly and Daw finding goals within a minute of each other to give their side the lead.
Bailey Jordan then responded with a nice goal before the Bulldogs again produced back-to-back majors, again courtesy of the same pair.
This time, Hurstbridge’s response was immediate with Barbera getting reward for effort with a major, before his side threatened to reduce the deficit for the rest of the quarter but could only score two more behinds to trail by 10 points at the main break.
The Bridges had a slight wind advantage in the opening term and despite playing against it in the second, they had looked competitive enough to keep up with North Heidelberg in the following quarter.
But that possibility was nothing more than a dream for Hurstbridge 30 seconds into the term, when Jesse Tardio received a handball from Liam Nunan and nailed a running shot on goal from just inside 50.
Hurstbridge looked desperate to keep up with the Bulldogs throughout the remainder of the term and had done well to limit their opponents to a 24-point lead approaching time on.
But Jason Heatley’s side went to another level in the final eight minutes of the quarter, kicking three further goals to make it five consecutive majors and lead by 45 points at the main break.
The Bridges’ task of pegging back the margin was going according to plan to start the second half, with Jordan and Joel Naylor finding the goals to make it a 33-point margin 12 minutes into the third.
But North Heidelberg again reminded their opponents of who was in control, with two goals in three minutes getting the margin back out to 46 points.
Mitchell Hymus then produced an impressive long-range bomb, but it was cancelled out by Zane Anderson who converted his set shot on the three-quarter time siren to put the Bulldogs one foot into the semi-final.
Hurstbridge managed to convert three constellation goals in the last term, but it was again overshadowed by another five-goal quarter from North Heidelberg, who finished 57-point victors and will be full of confidence heading into their first semi-final next week.
