By DAVID NAGEL
BEACONSFIELD has sent the Casey Cardinia league premiership race into chaos after a dramatic upset one-point victory over Narre Warren in Saturday’s second semi-final at Pakenham.
The Eagles can now sit back and relax, clear in the knowledge that this week’s preliminary final between Narre Warren and Cranbourne will be the most hard fought in years, as both sides look to book a place beside Beacy in the grand final at Berwick on September 20.
Beaconsfield’s direct passage to the grand final was put on hold, as goal umpires conferred with scoreboard attendants to see if Hayden Stagg’s goal – with the last kick of the match – had in fact drawn the Magpies level as the scoreboard suggested.
Initially the Magpies went up as winners, before the scores were corrected and the final act of an amazing day of football was complete.
The wash up is: the mistake may have robbed the Eagles of the unbridled joy that only a final siren can bring, but it didn’t take the limelight away from a magnificent performance, based on pressure, tackling, commitment, concentration, and an unwavering discipline for four quarters that ultimately sealed victory.
This was an arm wrestle in its purest form, neither side kicking more than a goal clear until late in the third, when majors to Tyson Mitchem, after a great tackle on Stagg, then a running goal to Josh Dodsworth, put the Eagles 15 points clear at the final break.
The Eagles had the chance to bury the Magpies at the start of the last quarter, but nerves set in for Taylor Joyce, twice, and Ben Kerrigan, before Kerem Baskaya kicked truly to cut the margin to two goals at the 10-minute mark of the term.
Joyce responded, 15 minutes in, only to be answered by a Matt Lee bomb at the 18-minute mark and we were back to a two-goal cushion. Eagles’ runner Ben McGowan then kicked a crucial point, which would be the centre of attention after the final siren, that wasn’t registered on the scoreboard as play went on.
Nick Scanlon kicked truly, before a magnificent Stagg mark was converted under immense pressure, the siren sounded, and confusion reigned supreme.
“I thought we were a point up, but I wasn’t 100 percent sure so I had to wait like everyone else,” an exhausted Beaconsfield coach Clint Evans said after the match.
The achievement of reaching football’s biggest day was still miles away from sinking in.
“No it hasn’t, when we look back at those first two games (defeated by 88 and 98 points) we’ve come a long way since then,” Evans said.
“The cards fell our way and I just couldn’t be prouder.”
The Eagles’ leaders were magnificent; Norm Walker Medal winner Scott Meyer was the best big man on the ground, while Daniel Mislicki, Ben Kerrigan, Mitchem and Kris Fletcher not once took a backward step.
Fletcher’s three goals, and Mitchem’s two, were important to the end result but their ability to burrow in and show their younger team-mates the way really did set the standard for the afternoon.
“I can’t believe it – I’m still pinching myself because we’ve come back from some pretty big losses to make it,” Fletcher said, before explaining the catalyst for the Eagles nine-game winning streak since being towelled up by the Magpies in round 11.
“We just addressed our standards, what we would accept and what we wouldn’t accept,” he said.
“It was a fairly honest conversation about how we waved the white flag a little too easy and we dropped off our pressure and intensity. We just needed to be able to look each other in the eye at the end of each game.”
For the Magpies, apart from their defence, led by Ben King, Jake Richardson and Ryan Morrison, a couple of midfield warriors in Michael Collins and Dylan Quirk, and the last gasp heroics of Stagg … there was very little to write home about.
BERWICK’s season came to an end after going down to Cranbourne by 41 points in the Sunday’s first semi-final at Beaconsfield.
The Wickers were slow to begin in the first term, and things got even worse as the Eagles rattled on seven goals in the second quarter to take control of the contest.
Mitch Johnson kicked four, and Nathan Waite three for the Wickers, who had no answer to Cranbourne half forward Michael Theodoridis who finished the day with six goals.
