Above: Demon tagger Josh Winter did a great job on league star and Lyrebirds’ coach Brent Eastwell on Sunday.By Ken Moore
KOOWEERUP confounded its critics and belied its recent poor form, walloping Buln Buln by 58 points to set up an intriguing first semifinal against Longwarry.
Kooweerup’s victory was the more notable for having many key players, including Peter Doll, Che Jenkins, Adam Bertuna and Simon Biszko, sidelined with injury.
The game was played in a bitterly cold and gusty wind that appeared to favour by four to five goals the pavilion end of the Poowong reserve all match.
Kooweerup kicked with the wind but it was Buln Buln who fired the opening salvo with a goal by Brad Taylor and when Matt Savage hauled in a nice mark and kicked truly the Lyrebirds had a decisive advantage.
Buln Buln had not only opened a minibreak but had held Kooweerup goalless with the wind for the first 20 minutes.
Late the quarter the Demons started to play with more fluency and with goals by Dan Crowley and Scott Morrison it grabbed a fourpoint lead at the first break.
Buln Buln had a good spread of contributors in the first quarter and its pressure caused the Demons to regularly turn over the ball.
Paul Pratt and Shane Tyler did well across the midfield and Savage and Taylor proved elusive up forward.
Kooweerup’s best in the first quarter included makeshift ruckman Adam Biszko, John and Chris Stanley and Morrison.
Kooweerup opened the second quarter with a touch of magic when its captaincoach Peter Bastinac kicked a goal out of midair, but Buln Buln worked its way back into the game and was rewarded when a tackle by Steve Mann set up youngster Luke Nobelius for the Lyrebirds’ third goal.
The next 15 minutes of the quarter proved decisive in the match as Kooweerup not only stopped Buln Buln scoring but managed to post four unanswered goals into the wind to go into the main break with a commanding 30point lead.
Rhys Morgan led the charge when he pulled in a screamer at the 17minute mark and dished the ball out to Bastinac, who posted his second, and this was quickly followed by a miraculous snap by Crowley.
Further goals came in timeon, through Rod Hoober (after a chain of handballs) and Morgan.
Kooweerup’s ascendancy was due to aggressive running through the midfield of the Stanley brothers, Hoober and Morrison and tight defence led by Brenton Ellett, Matthew Cameron and Ben Miller.
Buln Buln did not get its hands on the ball enough to trouble the scorers in the second quarter.
Kooweerup wasted little time scoring the first goal of the second half when Crowley won a free and kicked accurately from long range.
This was followed by a speculative kick on goal by Bastinac, which just sneaked in to put the Demons in charge.
Midway through the term Buln Buln rallied and with goals by Nobelius, Hayden Major and Tim Milner crept back within 23 points to give itself a sniff of hope.
However Buln Buln’s challenge dissolved just before the threequartertime siren when Morgan pounced on a loose ball and drilled it home to put the Demons 33 points to the good.
Buln Buln’s mini revival stemmed from its halfback line of Chris Bridger, Anthony Baker, Shane Tyler and Mick Pratt,who all provided plenty of rebound.
Despite a passionate plea by Buln Buln captaincoach Brent Eastwell to dig deep and show the spirit it had exhibited all season his charges dropped away badly in the last quarter.
To further deflate Buln Buln’s chances light rain that had threatened all day finally started to fall, making it even harder to peg back the deficit.
In the last term Kooweerup was in no mood to concede their hardwon advantage and Mark Franken and Morrison marked and goaled inside the first two minutes.
Less than 10 minutes had transpired when Bastinac and Crowley extended Kooweerup’s lead and the Demons took a stranglehold.
In the later part of the match Brett Hobson chimed in with his second goal and Buln Buln gained a consolation when Nobelius showed a glimpse of his exquisite skill with a stunning goal from hard on the boundary line with little if any space visible between the big sticks.
Kooweerup went on record a 58point victory and arrest its temporary slump.
The Demons put in its best team effort all season.
Lastline defender Ellett was outstanding and Cameron, Josh Evans, Miller and Hoober were also good fourquarter contributors.
Many of Kooweerup’s attacking moves started from defence and its ability to move the ball quickly with surer touch and cleaner skills set the teams apart.
Scott Morrison proved a thorn in the Lyrebird defence and never stopped running and presenting.
The three pronged forward set up of Crowley, Morgan and Hobson were able to outmuscle their opponents to take marks too easily and often.
Adam Biszko put in a bighearted effort to reduce the output of the far more athletic league bestandfairest Matthew Gray and Josh Winter, handed the assignment on Eastwell, stopped the Buln Buln coach from having his customary influence.
“It was a fantastic fourquarter effort.
We played solid footy and I thought we shut down Buln Buln in every department,” said Bastinac.
Kooweerup cast a wide net to get players preseason and will be relieved to get into the second week of the finals after coming into the game with its confidence shaky after two consecutive losses.
Buln Buln’s better players included defenders Pratt, Baker and Bridger and ruckrover Tyler.
Nobelius was its most dangerous forward and the youngster, who is still eligible for the thirds, looks to be on the verge of being a topline performer.
Gray tried hard to lift his side and Savage made handy contributions in the air and at ground level.
After quartertime Buln Buln was short of its best and, as it has all season, was crying out for more goalscoring power.
The Lyrebirds could not convert visits inside 50 metres into goals and their forwards struggled to impart pressure when they did not have possession, often letting their opponents run the ball out of defence too easily.
On the plus side they lost many quality players before the season and did well to make the final.
With many youngsters showing promise, the Lyrebirds had a solid base to build on.
