One way or the other, the Magpies will flourish on Sunday afternoon after West Brunswick booked their spot in the Division 2 Grand Final. They will face Ivanhoe AFC in the battle of the black and white stripes.
Before we look ahead to this weekend, across Preliminary Final weekend Old Paradians served it up against the Magpies for the opening half. Impressive with the ball in hand, and the ability to hit the scoreboard to get the ascendancy going their way.
A five goal opening term gave the Paradians a 12 point buffer at quarter time. Two goals apiece in the second term cut the margin to eight points at the main change. Words of wisdom, the notion of the Premiership quarter and a spot in the grand final on the line was enough of a selling point to West Brunswick at half time, coming out and exploding in the third term with eight goals to one, reeling in what was left of the margin, gaining the lead and then marching away to a 32 point advantage at three quarter time.
Old Paradians didn’t give up the fight but they were coming from a long way back at the final change. Managing four final quarter goals, the Magpies kicked two of their own to finish ahead by 25 points and not only advance to next weekend but book themselves a spot in Division 1 in 2023.
The Magpies will be impressed at the third term, and the varied avenues they found to goal Henshall, Cottrell, Irving and Sawaya all kicked two goals, while seven individual goalkickers also had a hand in the win. Conor Fowler was named best on the ground. Old Paradians will lick their wounds and look to reload for next year, in front of goal Luke Brock (35 goals for the season), and Anthony Cafari (42 goals for the season) have been key pillars up forward for the green, blue and purple monster. Anthony Daminato and Tom Cooper have regularly featured amongst the best players.
This weekend, it’s #1 vs. #2 in a battle of the black and white. Ivanhoe AFC have taken it all before them this season. West Brunswick had to go the long way around to get to this point. We have the Grand Final that we forecast midway through the season.
The Hoers have claimed two victories over West Brunswick, round 3 by 41 points, and the semi-final by 58 points. West Brunswick will go back to round 16 where they claimed victory by 33 points.
Ash Close, Wayne Schultz, Billy Drake are the main three in the Hoers line up that will need to fire. While Luke Buckler, Ben Hutchins and Billy Irving are going to have to be stopped for West Brunswick.
One way or the other, the Magpie will flourish. And, for these two sides – Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm can’t come quick enough.
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