Narre Warren’s Daniel Borninkhof stretches for the loose ball under pressure from Cranbourne forward Marc Holt at Casey Fields on Saturday. 34265 Picture: Donna OatesBy Brad Kingsbury
CRANBOURNE won a place in the senior finals for the first time in 10 long years with a thrilling 10-point win over Narre Warren at Casey Fields on Saturday.
Coach Doug Koop, who is usually guarded about over praising his side’s efforts, let his guard down a little in the rooms after the hard-fought encounter and acknowledged the significance of the win to the club.
“Making finals is the aim of every club, but it’s been a while since Cranbourne has done that and the effort, firstly to win, and then achieve that is very good.
“To do it in front of premiership players, who have achieved the ultimate in football – the prize that we are now chasing – was also significant I think,” he said referring to the large group of 1989 Cranbourne players who celebrated a premiership reunion on the day.
Cranbourne was without key playmakers in Callum Lester, Curtis Barker and big man Adam Wright, while veteran Magpie forward Brett Evans also missed with a back complaint.
Narre Warren opened the game kicking with a fluky breeze and attacked the ball hard, but Cranbourne switched on and immediately made an impact, booting five goals to two and setting up a 21-point lead at the first change.
The run created out of the midfield by Eagles including Brad Coller, Luke Martin and Ray George caused the Magpie hierarchy some early headaches, as did the mobility of super-improved big man Stuart Morrish around the ground.
The second term was error-ridden, but star Magpie Michael Collins managed to shake off the Rick Harmes’ tag enough to combine with captain Glenn Hamilton and drive their side forward and create scoring opportunities.
However inaccuracy at goal plagued the visitors and two late majors saw Cranbourne retain its quarter-time margin and have the Magpies on the back foot.
Narre Warren coach Matt Shinners altered his stagnating line-up at half-time and the move of Steven Kidd onto Cranbourne spearhead Marc Holt and the subsequent release of creative defender Colin McNamara up the ground had an immediate impact.
That, combined with the report and subsequent send-off of Robert Beadel in his 150th game, gave the Magpies some momentum and saw them reduce the deficit to only two points at the final change.
The momentum looked to have shifted, but the Cranbourne players responded and refused to give up the lead in the first 10 minutes of a desperate and, at times dour, last quarter.
The margin went out to seven points with a Troy Tharle-Adams major, was reduced to one point by Collins a minute later and extended again after clever Cranbourne forward Matt Fletcher slotted through his fifth goal of the afternoon with 15 minutes to play.
Again a battle of bodies ensued until the match-breaking goal was steered through by teenage Eagle Mitch Gersbeck from 40 metres at the 23-minute mark of the quarter, extending the home side’s advantage to two goals and ending the Magpies’ challenge.
One of the highlights of the afternoon was the clash of youngsters Ryan Jones and Tim Werner on a wing, with Eagle Jones taking the points, while Holt’s strong marking in defence late in the game, combined with Fletcher’s superb skills in attack, also stood out.
Koop was satisfied by the victory, in particular he was happy with the response after questioning his players’ character at the final break.
“I questioned at three-quarter time whether it meant enough to them and to their credit they stepped up in the last quarter and said ‘yes Koopy it does mean something to us and the Cranbourne Football Club’. That was very pleasing,” he said.
“We won ugly in a high-pressure game of football. It doesn’t matter how much skill you’ve got if you haven’t got the desire to go with it. When you’re in a bit of a slump you have to work that much harder and we did and now we can move into the ‘second season’ with some confidence.”
Kopp also praised the effort of the young Magpie side adding that they would likely develop into a very tough opponent in a short period.
For the vanquished it was a case of frustration for Shinners.
While he acknowledged the games of Hamilton, Collins, McNamara, Justin Marriott and tall youngsters Aaron Mills and Joel Broadhurst, he said the biggest problem at present was the fact that opposition sides were targeting his less mature players physically and they were feeling the pinch.
“I would like to have rested a lot of blokes coming into this time of year, but with the players we’ve got and the position we’re in, we just can’t afford to do that,” he said.
“We had our opportunities to win the game and we just didn’t stick to our game plan and structures well enough to do that. We did that and got back to within two points at three-quarter time, but the physicality of a team like Cranbourne was probably the difference in the end.
“Opposition sides are bottling the ball up and we know that and we’ve discussed that and we’ve put in place strategies to counter that, but we’re only doing it for one quarter. That’s the frustration.”
