Old Eltham Collegians scored a strong win over Kinglake in the Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3 first semi-final at the Whittlesea Showgrounds, prevailing by 24 points to confirm a preliminary final appearance for the second consecutive season.
The Turtles led for most of the contest in the 9.14 (68) to 6.8 (44) result and become the first fourth-placed side since South Morang in 2019 to reach the preliminary final.
“We won one final last year and also one this year, but it doesn’t mean anything unless we can keep going,” Old Eltham Collegians coach Matt Sleeman said.
Sleeman liked the ability of his team to pressure the opposition. The Turtles tackled well and also were able to work hard to run in defence when the Lakers were moving the ball forward.
Eden Simpson led the midfield for the victors, with support also coming from Nick Snowdon and Jack Fitzgerald.
Matthew Quinton worked solidly in the ruck with a little help from Thomas Cleary and Matthew Williamson, one of Williamson’s two goals came from a deep forward ruck duel where he grabbed the ball and snapped truly. Jake Tyson was the other multiple goal-kicker for the winners with two.
Old Eltham Collegians had a dominant defence which was well led by Hugh Kavanagh, who took a plethora of intercept marks and was well supported by Timothy Ellis and Angus Robertson.
Kinglake started slowly and didn’t trouble the scorers midway through the first term, at which point the Turtles already had two on the board.
They then began to hit their straps and looked the better side for about 20 minutes either side of quarter time.
Andrew Fairchild’s men briefly hit the lead early in the second term, but from then on, it was all Old Eltham Collegians. Williamson kicked both of his goals in that term with majors also being registered from Tyson and Daniel Cartisano.
Rory McIntyre was giving plenty for Kinglake and, against the run of play, he kicked a great goal in the shadows of half time. It snapped a run of four majors by the Turtles and gave Lakers fans a glimmer of hope going into the main break.
The game was a low-scoring affair in the second half, with Fitzgerald eventually scoring the first major of the third term to give the leaders a bigger break. Veteran Lesley Adams pegged one back for Kinglake, but Tyson had the quick reply and Old Eltham Collegians went to the last change with what seemed like a match-winning 29-point lead.
In the second semi-final a day earlier, Mernda had a similar, if slightly smaller, deficit and managed to hit the lead in the final term, with Lakers fans hoping for something similar to occur.
Fairchild was frank with his players in saying that they weren’t going to win if they continued playing like they had been so far. He urged his players to go quickly from half back and the middle of the ground in an attempt to pull off an unlikely comeback.
Several positional moves were made which included Leigh Gilbert playing at high half forward. The effort was there from the Lakers players, but they were unable to move the ball fluently enough to hit the scoreboard.
In fact, that was the story of the day for the team as they couldn’t hit their targets due to the pressure from the Turtles coming the other way. Kinglake managed lots of inside 50s, but few resulted in goals.
The only major of the quarter did come from Kinglake, Ethan Robinson, but it came with only a couple of minutes remaining in the game.
“They outworked us and outplayed us today,” said Kinglake coach Fairchild.
He noted the brilliant performance of Bailey Robinson despite the loss, with Riley Kennedy, Bailey Hamer and Thomas Clarke all contributing well.
