Father-son Hawk shines amid rival interest; flag favourites down Devils

Rest once again trumped momentum as the VFL’s home elimination finalists ran roughshod over last week’s impressive wildcard final winners to charge into the semi-finals at the weekend.

And the League’s most consistent club in recent years soared into a home preliminary final with an upset road win, while the minor premiers and redhot flag favourites broke a long finals drought and put a speedbump on the road of the most remarkable story of the year.

Here’s what happened in the qualifying and elimination finals of the VFL.

YOUNG GUN MAKES A FINALS STATEMENT

The future of Hawthorn father-son Calsher Dear has been one of the major football talking points of recent times, with clubs clamouring to lure him away from the Kennedy Community Centre amid the Hawks’ glut of tall forwards.

And he did those contract talks no harm whatsoever with a strong performance as the Box Hill Hawks upset second-placed Werribee by 13 points at Avalon Airport Oval to earn themselves a home preliminary final in a fortnight.

Dear didn’t have a lot of the ball, but he took the chances offered to him to kick 4.2, while two other players stuck on the AFL fringes in Sam Butler and James Blanck played crucial roles.

Butler kicked 3.2 from 23 disposals, while Blanck kept Tigers spearhead Brady Wright mostly in check, with midfielders Ollie Greeves (26, 12 contested, one goal), Henry Hustwaite (26, 17 contested, 10 clearances) and Finn Maginness (26, 11 contested) were strong through the middle and youngsters Noah Mraz (14, 10 marks) and Matt LeRay (24) also did well.

Celebrating the 100th VFL appearances of captain Stu Horner and spearhead Brodie McLaughlin and 50th milestones for Corey Preston and Flynn Perez, Box Hill put Werribee on the back foot with a four-goal burst in four minutes late in the opening term.

The Hawks led by as much as 30 points late in the second quarter but the Tigers roared back into contention with seven of the next eight goals, grabbing the lead when Wright exploded for his only three goals in the space of four minutes entering time-on of the third quarter.

But that’s where the momentum stopped, when star ruckman Ajang Kuol mun (19, 15 contested, 26 hitouts, 11 clearances), who was outplaying big Hawk Ned Reeves, went down with what looked like a serious knee injury.

It allowed the visitors to regroup and they kicked five goals to three in the last quarter to secure the win.

Small forward Anthony Depasquale continued his purple patch for Werribee with another five goals to have 12 in his past two games, champion midfielder Dom Brew (25, six clearances, 12 tackles, one goal) found another gear with Jack (24) Riding shotgun, Mitch Lloyd (25, 15 marks), Jaelen Pavlidis (25, 10 marks) and Louis Pinnuck (23, seven marks, one goal) racking up across half back and rookie Micah Robb laid 12 tackles and kicked two goals.

Box Hill will now play the winner of the Tasmania v Essendon semi-final in a fortnight.

POWERHOUSE BOROUGH OVERWHELM UNDERMANNED SWANS

The score remained in check for three quarters, but Port Melbourne was never in doubt of enjoying a successful return to finals after seven years away, thrashing Sydney by 55 points in their elimination final at ETU Stadium on Saturday.

The bigger bodies of the Borough were far too much for a young opponent missing the replacements for suspended AFL players as coach Brendan McCartney came armed with a simple but effective plan to double-team Sydney trump card Hayden McLean, while the pressure enacted in the midfield ensured the Swans could do nothing more than try to bomb the ball on top of head time after time.

He still kicked two goals, but Matt Gahan (30 disposals, 11 marks, seven intercepts, 10 rebounds), Michael Rudd (21, 10 marks, 12 intercepts) and Ned Hawkins (17, seven intercepts) picked them off with monotonous regularity.

Port Melbourne’s gameplan, and Sydney succumbing to the pressure with wayward disposal meant the Swans managed a paltry 11 marks in the first half and just 26 for the match (to 85), losing hitouts 59-24, clearances 49-31 and inside-50s 67-46.

In the middle, Josh Green (32, 20 contested, eight clearances, one goal), Ben Hobbs (28, 12 contested, eight clearances, eight tackles, 10 inside-50s) and Josh Tovey (27, 14 contested, seven clearances) were simply too big, where the Swans couldn’t get clean entries, Dom Bedendo, Luca Alessio and Kaine Baldwin had it laid out on a platter to kick eight goals between them and Max Rider also booted three to book a semi-final showdown with Werribee.

Sydney’s only winner was Ned Bowman, who produced a career-best 27 disposals and six marks, while Corey Warner (27, nine tackles) and Jake Sutton (20, 10 clearances, seven tackles, one goal) picked up good numbers but went at 48 and 50 per cent efficiency respectively.

Sydney did not give up though, laying a huge 104 tackles to 67, led by rookie ruckman Oscar Clifton’s 12 and Luke Giacometti’s 10.

SPECIAL SEVEN AS BOMBERS PLAN TASMANIAN AIR RAID

Essendon continued its stunning late-season renaissance, blasting to a 45-point elimination final victory over Williamstown at Windy Hill, the Bombers’ seventh win in a row.

The Seagulls had the upper hand early, leading by nine points at quarter-time, but the home team booted the first four goals of the second term and never looked back, extending its lead at every change to earn a crack at ending the Tasmanian fairytale in Hobart this Saturday.

Boasting 17 AFL-listed players, including six who had played in Essendon’s last AFL game the week before, the Bombers simply had too much class.

Despite the glut of AFL talent though, it was captain Xavier O’Neill who was the star, picking up 28 disposals at 82 per cent efficiency and laying eight tackles with support from Will Setterfield (23, eight clearances, one goal) and a prolific but wasteful Elijah Tsatas (32 at 50 per cent, eight clearances, nine entries), while Vigo Visentini (15, 36 hitouts) taking over after Seagull giant Alex Mirkov was injured in the third quarter.

Williamstown’s stars did their best, led by Luke Parks (17, 10 marks, 11 intercepts), Jack Toner (29, 12 contested, seven marks, one goal) and Jake Greiser (28, seven rebounds, one goal), while Harry Minton-Connell (24, eight intercepts) had one of his best games of the year in what turned out to be topline coach Justin Plapp’s final game in charge after six years and 108 matches for 58 wins, two draws and four consecutive finals appearances.

FLAG FAVOURITES TOO COMPOSED FOR DEBUTANT DEVILS

The Devils went down to Geelong, looking for a final to steal, but the Cats are the best fiddle players in the League by some distance and they risened up their bows in the second half to win by 23 points and move into the preliminary final.

Sensationally playing a qualifying final in its first season, Tasmania started well with the opening two goals through 50th-gamer Zach Adams and second-gamer Josh Wolfe, but the Cats responded through Zach Stevens and Jacob Molier to take the lead at quarter-time.

Another four goals to two eased the margin out 11 at the main break and they repeated that dose in the third for a match-winning 25-point advantage that they comfortably held until the end.

Geelong’s midfield drips with class and it was all on show, with Mitch Knevitt (30, 17 contested, two goals), George Stevens (31, 14 contested, eight clearances, one goal) and and Jack Bowes (30, 10 contested) racking up plenty of the ball underneath Joe Pike (14, 31 hitouts, eight clearances, one goal), who had the better of Cam Owen and Hugh Dixon.

Former Southport star Nick Williams relished his return to finals footy in defence with 17 disposals, six marks and eight intercepts), while Bailey Boag (30, 17 contested) busted his boiler in the midfield with support from captain Robbie Fox (26) in his 50th game.

MRP NEWS

Once again everyone was pretty much well behaved in the VFL qualifying and elimination finals, with only three reprimands issued if the players take the early plea.

Essendon’s Matt Guelfi would risk a $300 fine if he challenged his charge of instigating a melee, while Geelong captain Dan Capiron and Port Melbourne skipper Tom Hird can avoid $150 fines with early pleas for careless umpire contact.

All three have accepted their reprimands.

@JontyTheCaller