The Vultures or the Jackas? Premier C Men’s Preliminary Final Preview

The minor premier against the 4^th ranked team is the least likely of all the Preliminary Final combinations. But that’s what we have to look forward to this Sunday and it promises to be a beauty!

Here’s a preview:

PREMIER C PRELIMINARY FINAL – PARKDALE VULTURES vs AJAX (Sunday 2.30pm – Trevor Barker Beach Oval)

In the Premier B Prelim Preview, I posed the question about overall body of work versus lead-in form when it comes to Preliminary Final thinking. It equally applies here.

The Vultures won 5 more games than the Jackas in the home & away season, finishing a game clear on top with just one defeat all season – by 10 points to Beaumaris in Round 12.

The Sharks repeated the dose in last weekend’s Second Semi Final, converting a 5-point three-quarter time lead into an eye-catching 51-point win that sent them straight through to Grand Final Day.

Vultures’ coach Owen Lalor was frank in the assessment of his team’s worst performance of the season.

“It was a bad day at the office for us. We were beaten in contested disposal, beaten in clearance, beaten in ground ball and we were beaten up,” said Lalor, with trademark candour.

“It’s a classic cliché, but we’re now looking for our boys to respond and improve significantly in key areas that are needed to win finals. We’ve got to move on quickly and remind ourselves that we’ve won 17 games for a reason.”

And the Vultures will need to tap into confidence derived from their excellent body of work as they prepare to face an AJAX line-up that refused to yield against St Bedes/Mentone Tigers. The Jackas trailed by 5 points before Toby Sheezel nailed the match winner at the 27-minute mark of the final quarter.

AJAX coach Lachie Buszard, who has re-signed for 2026 after a more-than-promising first season at the helm, has described this week’s Prelim as a “free hit” for his team, with few pundits expected to tip the Jackas against the minor premiers.

But as we pointed out in last week’s Preview, AJAX are always a chance given they are elite at winning contested footy and clearances. If they can get on top on the inside, they can control the game and limit quick supply to the dangerous Parkdale forwards.

They were +11 for Clearances against the Tigers and +14 for Inside 50s. That gave the Jackas’ forwards more looks at quality incoming ball and they took 13 Marks Inside 50 to 6 as a result.

Converting their stoppage work more efficiently will be high on Lachie Buszard’s wishlist, given they kicked 2.8 to 1.1 from Stoppage in the Semi – 10 shots to 2 – and that inaccuracy could have seen them pay the ultimate price, given they finished with 23 scoring shots to 13 but only won by 5 points.

Goalkicking was brutally difficult in the blustery conditions, but it’s Melbourne in September and we could well be in for more of the same this weekend. The Jackas know they will need to take their chances.

So, can the Vultures dust themselves off and bounce back to earn another shot at Beaumaris in the premiership decider?

If they are to rebound, they’ll need to muscle up on the inside.

They lost Contested Possession 152-115 against the Sharks, with a whopping 55 Clearances to 30 a smacking in anyone’s language.

They entered the game as the #1 Contested Marking team in the competition, but the Sharks mauled them aerially as well, taking 23 Contested Marks to 7, plus 15 Marks Inside 50 to just 3.

Throw in 25 Intercept Marks to 13 and you can piece together how the Vultures were beaten 62-34 in Inside 50s. If you can’t win it at the source and you’re repeatedly turning it over when you do win it, you’re not giving your forwards any chance of kicking a winning score with that differential.

But for all that downside, here’s the upside. None of that actually matters. That game is consigned to the history books. Done and dusted.

Parkdale has played superb football all season long and rightly earned themselves the double chance, which serves as precious insurance for having a “bad day at the office” on Semi Final Day. They are now cashing that policy in.

Their challenge is to learn a few valuable lessons from last weekend’s breakdown, but not carry forth that disappointment into the Preliminary Final.

Lalor has full faith in his team’s ability to bounce back.

“Okay, we didn’t handle the pressure first up and were beaten by a very good side. But our guys have no fear. We’ll get over things and move on. We’ve got a great group of mates here and they’ll all fire up again this week.”

The Vultures won both clashes between these teams during the season – by 10 points in Round 8, then 33 points in Round 16.

The Jackas can extract some confidence from that Round 8 clash, which saw them within 5 points at the 25-minute mark of the final quarter before the Vultures put the game to bed with two goals in a minute.

They were also within 2 points at three-quarter time in the Round 16 clash, before Parkdale put the foot down in fine style to ram on 5 unanswered final term goals to score what turned out to be a comfortable win.

Will the Vultures do the trifecta over AJAX in 2025 and earn promotion to Premier B in the process, or can the Jackas come from fourth and ride the belief they gained from last week’s gritty come-from-behind win all the way up to the second tier in 2026?

VAFA MEDIA TIPS:

Paddy Grindlay: Parkdale Vultures by 26pts
Matthew Donald: Parkdale Vultures by 23pts

Enjoy the game – Sunday 2.30pm at Trevor Barker Beach Oval!