The East Gippsland senior football premiership is up for grabs.
All four teams contesting this weekend’s semi finals – Boisdale Briagolong, Lucknow, Wy Yung and Stratford – have legitimate claims to winning the premiership and it will simply come down to the best team on the day.
Boisdale Briagolong and Lucknow have earned the finals double chance by finishing the home and away season in position one and two respectively, and that could prove significant with a weeks break afforded to the winner of this weeks qualifying final.
It’s the Bombers who lay claim to premiership favouritism ahead of finals action.
They fell short at the final hurdle in 2023, however have improved and added some important members to a unit which is firing at close to full strength.
They looked to be in dire straits early in the season when gun full forward Jesse Bedggood went down with a season-ending knee injury, but they have strung together eight successive wins since that day.
The forward line is structured around skipper Jim Reeves and the rejuvenated Cal Egan, with cameos from coach Sam Bedgood, Tom Jolly and Tim Dessent has served them well.
Coach Bedggood has his side humming and with Kel Porter, Jolly, Jackson Glenane, feasting on the fruits of the competitions dominant big man Matt Wilkinson, he has reason to believe his engine room will over power the lighter framed Lucknow on ball unit in this Saturday’s qualifying elimination final at Bairnsdale City Oval.
Joel McNamara, skipper Jesse Glassborrow, Glenn Perkins and wildcard Zac Smith will need be at the top of their game if the
Magpies are to progress straight to the big dance.
The Magpies play a strong defensive game and do their best to limit their opposition to 10 goals or less, meanwhile generating enough scoring opportunities to claim victory.
Their back six contains plenty of talent, led by Andrew Nelson, who gets plenty of support from Jessie Pescod, Sam Park, Stevie Bertino, coach Shaun Mooney and the emerging Jack Saulle.
Early in the season Lucknow would win games by compiling 12 to 14 majors, however over the past three weeks their attack has gone into overdrive in a bid to create multiple winning styles. They have some dangerous players in the forward 50 arc, including Jackson and Dallas Smith, John Gooch, Nick Mooney and Brendan Flinn.
From round 15 to 17 the Magpies produced 64 goals. In three of the four games prior they only managed 8, nine and nine, a total of 26.
The Bombers will go in favourites, but it may be a different style game compared to their round 11 encounter which Boisdale won 12 goals to nine.
TIGERS v SWANS
Many believe that Wy Yung is the mostly likely danger to the Bombers correcting last year’s wrong, but the Tigers need to overcome Stratford this Sunday in the elimination final at the Bairnsdale City Oval, with the Swans being victorious in both meetings with the Tigers this season.
Both sides will go in high on confidence after easily accounting moderate opposition in the final round of the home and away season, with Jack Betts (Wy Yung) and Jack Bacon (Stratford) both kicking massive bags of goals.
It will be interesting to see if the Swans opt to play the dynamic Bacon close to goal this week again with hard running high half forward troubled by a hamstring strain.
Both sides have dynamic onballers, the Swans always getting plenty of run and carry from Lachie Channing, Ryan Thatcher and Alex Morcom, while the Tigers have the explosive Nathan Dennison and Jock Overend.
But this contest may not be about talent, it could come down to who can keep their composure for longest, something the Swans have been able to against the Tigers this season and most notably in the 2022 finals series, defeating the previously undefeated Tigers in the semi final before accounting for them in the grand final.
Wy Yung may be better placed this time around, however the Swans will like their chances.
For coverage of East Gippsland Football Netball League presentation night, see this Friday’s East Gippsland News Weekend.
