WGLFL preliminary final review

THE TraralgonMoe preliminary final at Traralgon started at a frenetic pace with Traralgon seeming to have the play in their forward line most of the time. Moe’s Peter Ainsworth and Gary Blandford were working overtime repelling Traralgon attacks.
During one Traralgon foray Michael Geary read the fall of the ball off the pack and snapped a goal. It didn’t take long before Moe’s Dean Caldow shot a pass out to Chris Smogavec who replied. Both defences were on top with Shane Simpson, Jamie Aitken and Tony Fulton doing well for Traralgon and Gary Blandford, Peter Ainsworth and Daniel Halstead for Moe.
At the first break Traralgon led 2.2 to 1.2.
Again in the second term it seemed the ball was in Traralgon’s forward zone more than Moe’s. Caldow marked and kicked one of his trademark long leftfoot goals. Geary retaliated quickly for Traralgon when he roved the pack again and snapped truly.
By the time rain started Moe was starting to get the ball into the forward zone with more precision but it was from a scrimmage on the flank that Caldow shot the ball to the waiting Jason Shields, who then speared a pass to Dean Horton for a good goal. Traralgon shot the ball back into their forward line and Joel Lont snapped a great goal that put the Maroons back in front. In the closing stages of the quarter Moe’s Symon Lee was awarded a free and slotted through a major to level the halftime scores at 4.4 each.
In the second half Traralgon again had the ball in its forward half more than the Lions but was unable to score. Jamie Aitken was playing a fine game on Shields and this was hurting Moe, the duel threatening to decide the match. Paul McCulloch’s move to the halfback line to play the loose backman was also paying dividends for Traralgon. While Moe’s Peter Ainsworth, Leigh Stevens and Gary Blandford were playing well they weren’t as effective as previous weeks because of Traralgon’s pressure. Shields was being well held, Rod Peaty and Smogavec were being negated and the Maroons were slowly getting on top. Traralgon had an eightpoint break at the last change.
Moe started the last quarter with a pinpoint pass from Blandford to Lee, who goaled to close the margin. But Traralgon took charge from this point and kicked the next three goals to book a place in the grand final.
In the reserves match Leongatha was too strong for Maffra, while in the thirds a strong Sale team brushed aside Traralgon. Sale had a victory in the fourths, but it was only after a hard effort against a smaller but determined Warragul unit.