WGLFL round 18 review

GARFIELD’S finals campaign ended in Maffra at the weekend after a 10goal defeat by the unbeaten and unbackable premiership favourite.
The first quarter started with great team plays by Maffra that made Garfield look slow and secondrate. Hayden Burgiel was in brilliant form as he set up his forwards, but missed some opportunities when kicking for goal. Brother Adrian was in scintillating form, pulling in some great grabs and kicking truly.
There are many things that set the powerful Maffra unit apart from the rest of the competition but the big difference is in discipline. Every player was prepared to run and use the whole field, handballing to a running teammate was the norm and passes placed the ball out in front of the target. Maffra does these simple things better than other clubs and at the first break Garfield was looking at a scoreline of 0.3 to Maffra’s 6.7.
The Stars came out in the second quarter determined to be more competitive and added four goals, but allowed Maffra to kick another six. Tom and Ben Marsh were winning possessions and Matt Cunningham, Mal McKenna and Beau Runnalls were lively up forward. For Maffra Kallan Killoran, with Andrew Gieschen on the sidelines, was a good replacement goalkicker and Nigel Sellings was in everything, setting himself up for a good finals series. Brad and Glenn Coridas worked hard and Ben Durrant was involved in many forward thrusts.
In the third quarter Maffra extended its lead to 73 points. Garfield coach Ben Soumilas emphasised that the last quarter was a chance to show pride or roll over and let Maffra perform. To their credit the Stars were able to outscore the Eagles in the final term but still recorded a 60point loss.
In the clash for second place between Sale and Traralgon Sale began by attacking with relentless enthusiasm but could not translate this dominance to the scoreboard.
In the second quarter Traralgon added 7.4 with great attacking play while Sale kicked 4.3 to hang on to a slender lead of two points. In the second half Traralgon took charge and added a further 8.7 to 2.6 as Sale faded out. The final scoreline showed that both sides had 29 scoring shots but Traralgon recorded a 35point win. Best players for Traralgon were Greg Morley, who is having a great season and Dane McGennisken.
Moe was able to resurrect its finals plans with a great victory over Drouin. Moe controlled the game and Drouin was never in the hunt after the first bounce. The Lions won every quarter and extended their lead to win by a moraleshattering 114 points. Peter Ainsworth was brilliant, Rod Peaty and Peter Yates continued their good form and forwards Jason Shields, Leigh Stevens, Dean Caldow and Simon Lee took advantage of their opportunities. Most of the Hawks struggled, Jeremy Campbell, Jake Proctor, Brenton Lockhart, Jay Barr and Kent Edwards offering best resistance.
Morwell travelled to Leongatha and came away with a 14point victory. There was never a lot in the match, Morwell leading by a point at the first break then three points at halftime. The last quarter was a nailbiter before Morwell regained the ascendancy and finished in front.