Old Eltham Collegians have advanced to the Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3 preliminary final after a hard-fought 21-point triumph over Kilmore in the first semi-final at Whittlesea Showgrounds on Sunday.
Fronting up for their first senior men’s final in the NFNL and its first finals campaign since 2014, the Turtles did enough throughout the game to hold the Blues at arm’s length in the 12.6 (78) to 8.9 (57) victory.
After an even start to the contest, Old Eltham Collegians kicked a goal early in the second term to regain the lead and were never headed thereafter.
The shining light for the Turtles was Nick Milne who booted six majors and was rarely beaten in one-on-one contests.
Jack Snow, in only his second game back from an injury lay-off, also bobbed up with three majors. One of those was a set shot into the wind from 45 metres out, which many thought he was too far out to score, but his kick cleared the goal line easily.
“At the start of the year, we looked at ticking of some ‘firsts’ that we hoped to achieve this year,” said Old Eltham Collegians coach Matt Sleeman.
“We had never beaten Laurimar, hadn’t won against Kilmore at J.J. Clancy Reserve and had not defeated South Morang at Mill Park Lakes Reserve. We ticked of all those this year and now we have won a final.”
As well as praising the exploits of Milne, Sleeman was impressed by teenager Sebastian Francis-Perkins for his contested work across half back.
The feeling among the Turtles coaching staff was that, if they broke even in the midfield, they had enough quality up forward and down back to win the game and that was exactly how it turned out.
Niall McDonagh and Jack Fitzgerald worked hard in the centre of the ground to quell the influence of the strong Kilmore midfield, and both were given plaudits from their coach. Nick Snowdon worked hard at half forward, while Tom O’Neill took numerous intercept marks deep in defence. Corey Ray was his usual busy self in the centre.
The Blues regularly moved the ball smoothly between the arcs, but the last kick inside fifty rarely led to the ultimate success.
Michael Fenech kicked the first goal of the match and was the most dangerous forward for Kilmore. He finished with two but missed chances to kick a bigger bag.
Brothers Chris and Ciaran Barton worked productively all day, with both kicking a goal, Ciaran also took the mark of the day just prior to the midway mark of the final term.
“It was a shame we couldn’t get the win,” said Kilmore coach Nathan Phillips.
“But the boys continued to fight it out to the end and credit to them.”
James Atkinson impressed in the ruck and often gave his team first use of the ball with both Michael Marrett and Leigh Irons doing plenty of work around the packs.
Kilmore will now reset and look towards 2023 being the year to claim their first finals victory.
