CARLTON gained a small modicum of revenge for its AFL finals heartbreak by steamrolling Collingwood in front of a big Victoria Park crowd in their Smithy’s VFL Elimination Final on Sunday before the Gold Coast fairytale continued with an impressive win over Box Hill Hawks at Metricon Stadium.
The Blues earned a flight to Queensland to take on the Brisbane Lions on Saturday, while the Suns will take their wave of momentum to Sydney on Sunday to meet a Swans team they have beaten five times in a row with preliminary final berths on the line.
2ND ELIMINATION FINAL
COLLINGWOOD 10.8 (68)
CARLTON 15.10 (100)
A WEEK ago Carlton went into a Round 22 clash against Collingwood at the MCG needing an upset win just to hang onto a finals spot it had held all year.
Eight days later the Blues are booking flights to the Sunshine State after stunning the Magpies for the second week in a row, silencing a parochial Victoria Park crowd to land a comprehensive 32-point 2nd Elimination Final victory on Sunday and charge into the Smithy’s VFL last six.
The Blues left the Magpies players and fans shellshocked by piling on 5.2 before Sam Glover finally got the home team on the board in the 26th minute and led by 28 points at the first break as Will Setterfield produced one of the great finals games in the midfield that yielded 40 disposals, seven marks, 13 clearances, six inside-50s, four rebound-50s and 2.3.
Collingwood rallied in the second term on the back of a terrific set shot from comeback forward Nathan Kreuger (six disposals, one goal) in his first game since suffering a shoulder injury on Anzac Day, kicking four goals to three to pull the margin back to 22 at the main break, but the visitors easily held their hosts at bay with 7.4 to 5.6 in the second half.
And it was Setterfield who put the contest to bed, with his first goal coming nine minutes into the third term after Campbell Lane had booted the first to cut the margin to 17, and his second putting the final nail in the coffin entering time-on of the last.
Carlton had 46 more disposals, 23 more marks and 15 more clearances but only won inside-50s by four, with its defence putting in a terrific performance to hold the Magpies out, led by Liam Stocker (26, five marks, five rebounds), rookie Heath Ramshaw (22, six marks) and Alex Cincotta (18, six rebounds).
Setterfield had plenty of support in the middle too, with Paddy Dow (33, seven marks, six clearances, five entries) also dominant, while Tom North (21, eight marks, one goal) and Joel Trudgeon (20, six clearances, 10 tackles) doing the grunt work and Ben Crocker (nine marks, three goals) and Ned Cahill (eight marks, five clearances, two goals) elusive up forward.
Fin Macrae put in a strong audition to retain his spot in Collingwood’s team for its AFL qualifying final against Geelong on Saturday, leading the Magpies with 28 possessions, five clearances and nine tackles, with Callum Brown (27, five clearances, six entries, six tackles, one goal), Josh Carmichael (25, six clearances, six entries, nine tackles) and Trent Bianco (23, five marks, one goal) also ready to go if required by Craig McRae.
Will Kelly (eight marks, four rebounds), Liam McMahon (six marks, five rebounds) and Caleb Poulter (five marks, five rebounds) all tried hard in defence for the Magpies.
1ST ELIMINATION FINAL
GOLD COAST 13.16 (94)
BOX HILL HAWKS 10.11 (71)
GOLD COAST’s maiden VFL finals bus hits the road to Sydney after it outclassed Box Hill Hawks by 23 points in the 1st Elimination Final at Metricon Stadium on Sunday night.
The Suns and Hawks locked into a ding-dong battle in the first half, going virtually goal for goal through before the home team made their move with goals to Alex Sexton, Jed Foggo and Chris Burgess in the space of eight minutes just before half-time.
The confidence boost from that 13-point lead continued as they added the first two of the third to make it five in a row and lead by 28 midway through the term before the Hawks battled back to get within 14 at the final change.
But this was going to be the Suns shining after the sunset, with best-on-ground Josh Corbett kicking a crucial goal inside the first minute of the last term to give his team the momentum before Burgess’ second entering time-on ensured there would be no Box Hill miracle this time around.
Corbett was in sublime touch for the Suns, winning 25 disposals including five inside-50s, pulling in a remarkable 17 marks and booting 4.4 in a matchwinning performance.
Gold Coast dominated most categories of the game, racking up 399 disposals to just 295 and 116 marks to 77 but kept the visitors alive a bit longer than it would have liked with 4.6 to 3.3 in the last term.
Despite being without the ineligible Brayden Fiorini, the Suns were outstanding in the middle, led by Sam Flanders (37 disposals, 10 marks, six clearances, six entries, six tackles) and James Tsitas (30, five clearances, five entries), Jack Bowes (28, nine clearances, five entries, five tackles) and Elijah Hollands (27, five entries).
Charlie Constable (31, seven rebounds), Darcy Macpherson (27, seven marks, eight rebounds) and captain Jez McLennan (22, five marks) provided terrific drive out of the backline, while Sexton (three goals), Frosty Miller medallist Burgess (two) and Foggo (two) were able sidekicks for Corbett up forward.
Damian Mascitti was magnificent for Box Hill with 29 disposals, six entries and a huge 12 rebounds, while fellow experienced stars Liam Shiels (21, six clearances, five entries, six tackles), Dan Howe (25, five marks), and Jordan Cunico (18, five marks, 11 rebounds) put in solid shifts.
Fergus Greene hit back from last week’s goalless game to star up for the Hawks with four goals, including becoming the first player to boot 50 majors for his club in 20 years, while youngster Max Hall (six marks, three goals) had his best game at VFL level and Ben Cavarra performed well with 20 touches and six entries but went goalless for only the second time this season.
THIS WEEK
NEXT WEEK: September 10-11: 1st Preliminary Final: Casey Demons v Winner 2nd SF (Casey Fields, TBA). 2nd Preliminary Final: Southport v Winner 1st EF (Fankhauser Reserve, TBA)
THEN: Sunday, September 18: Smithy’s VFL Grand Final: Winner 1st PF v Winner 2nd PF (Ikon Park)
Twitter: @BRhodesVFL
All VFL matches in 2022 are live-streamed free. The match of the round can be viewed on Channel 7, while all remaining games are streamed live and on demand via www.afl.com.au and the AFL Live and VFL apps. Radio 3WBC and Casey Radio are also broadcasting matches.
To access live scores, results, ladder, stats and to link to live streams/replays, download the VFL/W Official App from the Apple or Google Play stores.
