Who will score a ticket straight through to the grand final

By Rob Popplestone

Foster v Fish Creek

Last time they met: Round 8: Fish Creek 7-7-49 defeated Foster 7-6-48.

What the coaches said at the time:

Jarrad Walker, Fish Creek: A gritty win, a genuine arm wrestle all day with neither team able to kick back-to-back goals. Both teams defended really well, making a low-scoring affair, and we just fell on the right side at the final siren.

Sam Davies, Foster: Just a game that got away unfortunately and a game that we definitely lost from our mistakes rather than they won from playing good footy. High stoppage scrap for a lot of the day, and we just failed to execute late, which led to turnover or poor decision-making. We’ll learn and take a lot away from it, but we need to be better in certain areas. 

Round 18: Foster 7-4-46 defeated Fish Creek 4-4-28

Sam Davies, Foster: Really tough game in conditions we haven’t really seen or played in this year – I thought they were on top in the first half, they applied great pressure and we panicked a lot with the footy. 

We didn’t adjust too much after half-time, but came out much more calm and got a lot more speed on the ball, which created a lot of opportunities that we took. Both teams will have changes in a fortnight, but we will definitely enjoy the week and appreciate the work put in to finish on top. 

Jarrad Walker, Fish Creek: A solid hit out against Foster in an interesting weather day. The first half was relatively dry, although hard to score for both teams, the ball was moving pretty quickly. With no team able to capitalise on opportunities in the first half, Foster definitely changed that in the third quarter, putting on 6 goals straight to our one. Something we have been pretty good at is stopping opposition momentum, but we just weren’t able to in the third quarter, disappointing on our end, but hats off to Foster. They were first in and out hunted us. By the end of the third the rain and hail had set in and it was always going to be hard for us to claw them back. We showed a bit at the start of the last quarter for a potential comeback, but, unfortunately, the damage was done. Well done to

Foster finishing a year clear on top of the ladder, a very solid year.

Yinnar v MDU

Last time they met: Round 6: MDU 15-9-99 defeated Yinnar 15-6-96

What the coaches said at the time: Rhett Kelly, MDU: Another great game of footy yesterday, we understood that it was going to be a huge challenge to take on Yinnar on their home deck, but I knew the lads were up to it after playing some good footy the last few weeks. I thought we started that game really well, but to Yinnar’s credit, they kept spreading hard from the contest and put some pressure on us across the second and third quarters. I asked the boys for a big effort in the last quarter, which is what they delivered. The game could have gone either way, but I am proud that we fought it out till the end. Yinnar is a solid team, and we look forward to another hit out in the second half of the year.

Sam McCulloch, Yinnar: Very disappointing loss. We played some really good footy at different periods throughout the day, but weren’t able to maintain it for 4 quarters, which won’t win games against good opposition. 

Will learn a lot from the game and work on the areas which let us down. 

Round 15: MDU 14-10-94 defeated Yinnar 10-5-65

Rhett Kelly, MDU: It was great to get back on the winning list. I was really proud of how the lad’s responded after a couple of challenging weeks. We identified a few areas of our game that needed quick attention. Those areas were a big focus for us during the week and yesterday’s game, and to the guys’ credit, they got it done, playing a solid four-quarter game. Yinnar is a quality team, and we knew that we had to be at our best to beat them. 

Sam McCulloch, Yinnar: MDU certainly came to play and were out to redeem themselves after a loss last week. We struggled to get our game going and were out-worked for a large portion of the game. Credit to MDU for the way they applied themselves and their attitude for 4 quarters.

With the bye coming next week, it’s a real opportunity for us to regroup and have a good look at some areas of our game that are letting us down. 

What do the coaches have to say heading into this weekend?

Sam McCulloch, Yinnar: The composure of the group throughout these moments of our first final was very pleasing. Another big challenge coming up, we will have to be on our game to progress through to the preliminary and know that MDU will be a tough game.

Rhett Kelly, MDU: We’ve been lucky to have beaten Yinnar twice this season, so if there is an edge, maybe it’s a mental edge, but the fact is, we all know this is now a completely different challenge for both teams. I’m looking forward to it, and so is the club.