Well lads, welcome back to another week of Let’s Talk Sport, plenty of finals action and it’s all heating up with the pointy end of the season. Let’s start the way we normally do with best action, kick us off Justin.
JUSTIN: My best action isn’t necessarily best action but if you are talking in terms of entertainment, it is 100 out of 100 – that’s how good this is. The Outer East veteran’s grand final was on Friday night and I watched the replay; Belgrave was storming home and kicked the last two goals of the game to get within three points and then with about five seconds left Dean Besley from Belgrave was tripped in the goal square and awarded a free kick, five metres out, directly in front. He hits the post, well he kicked it above the post, Belgrave loses by two points in a grand final. He misses from five metres out and straight in front. That is something he will see in his nightmares.
DAVE: Shocking kick too, he kicked it sky-high. I am thinking Dan might hang the boots up after that one.
DAVE: For my best action, we have to go back to Friday night, I am watching Collingwood play Melbourne and I am disgusted with what I am watching. It was a terrible game of football and Collingwood looked like they were going to get beaten. My daughter was so frustrated with my negative commentary of the game that she said “Dad, go to bed”, so I went to bed and fell asleep. I didn’t know that the Pies had won or that Gold Coast had lost until Saturday morning. That wasn’t my best action, but it was a highlight for me, getting told off by my daughter and sent to bed.
JONTY: So what part of the game was it where you went to bed?
DAVE: Halfway through the third.
JONTY: (Groans) Oh yeah … that was horrible.
DAVE: I never would’ve thought that Alexandra reserves would be best action in the Gazette, they were the underdog in the reserves on Saturday and I think I was halfway through my first can when a bloke called Scott Heveren, number 36, tattoos, big half-back, comes storming through the middle and kicks a goal on the run to put Alexandra out of Seville’s reach. You could tell he was a popular bloke, all of his mates jumped on him as he was running back. I want to give a shoutout to a little midfielder for Seville, number 26, Mason O’Neill. There were two times in that game where the ball was at its hottest, the start of the first quarter and the beginning of the last quarter and Seville smashed Pakenham to pieces during those times.
JONTY: My best action goes to someone you will be very familiar with Dave, Gippsland Power’s Xavier Ladbrook. He has played everywhere this year, he is 200cm and started playing on the wing, then went to centre half-forward, full forward, then as a defender. He played ruck on the weekend and was excellent, I don’t really have one piece of best action or a moment for you, but he was the best player on the ground.
BLAIR: I’m going to finals footy and Devon Meadows beat Pearcedale by 47 points. They had all the play early but couldn’t put it on the board with some inaccurate kicking. It was about 20 points the difference in the second quarter, Pearcedale was still in the game, but then Ryan Bastinac – an experienced Pearcedale midfielder – turns the ball over on the wing and it goes back through the corridor to Nick Battle, who goes bang from 50 for a goal. But the best action goes to Devon Meadows’ Lucas Thompson who kicked a brilliant snap goal in the next play – one of three on the day for him. Panthers had two in 20 seconds and that is when they really started to break Pearcedale.
DAVE: It’s hard to go past Nick Battle for excitement when he is at his best, he is a freak.
BLAIR: Yes, he and Joel Hillis were at their absolute best on the weekend, they were clinical in the midfield. I now get the rave and understand what Jonty has been saying for quite some time.
HOT AND COLD
BLAIR: The next topic is who is hot and cold and Somerville is hot. They beat Chelsea on the weekend and have now won 11 of their past 12 going into this week’s game against Pearcedale. Another is Devon Meadows. They have won their past six games and are in some really good form, they should’ve won by more on the weekend, the midfield is firing and ‘Chip’ Frawley was back in the side to kick four goals – they are up and about. As for cold, Pearcedale has limped to the line in the past month of footy. They were hit by injuries on the weekend and have had a tough few weeks, it will be a big challenge for them this weekend against Sommy.
JONTY: I am going to start with cold and go to hot. My cold is Beaconsfield, I am going to read you their record against top six teams in their last seven matches. On the weekend they lost by 61 points, -18, -46, -3, -25, -1, -1, -18 and -22. So not since the first month of the season have they knocked off a team in the top six. They will consider themselves a chance this week, but realistically, they have struggled with injury and form in the back end of the season. It is disappointing because it is really hard to see them getting up against North Ringwood and obviously they made the prelim final last year and it’s probably going to be a step backwards. In terms of who is hot, Casey, entering finals with five wins on the trot and all their VFL-listed players in really hot form. They get access to the AFL players as well but guys like Mitch Hardie and Wardell Lual are VFL-listed players who are leading the charge. Sam Batson has been in good form for Buln Buln as well Justin, so hopefully they can win through to the prelim final this weekend.
DAVE: Hot and cold boys …
JONTY: Katy Perry? (boys laugh)
DAVE: Very good, even an old man like me knows that song. But three of the top four contenders in West Gippsland football have been hot and cold over the last fortnight. Nar Nar Goon is on top of the ladder and they had their worst performance of the year last week, which is probably taking a bit away from Tooradin-Dalmore. They (Nar Nar Goon) won by a point against the Gulls but then come out after their flattest performance of the year and beat fourth-placed Cora Lynn by 96 points on Saturday.
JONTY: You called Cora Lynn an emerging contender last week.
DAVE: Let’s give them a chance; there was nothing to play for on the weekend. Cora Lynn beat Phillip Island last week by 17 points, their best performance of the year. Then they come out and get beaten by 96 points so there is the hot and cold there. And Phillip Island were cold last week, getting beaten by 17 points, and then they come out and beat Inverloch-Kongwak by 143 points…so they’ve all been a bit hot and cold. And Justin, I am not an Outer East expert, but cold was the Pakenham midfield on Saturday. When the game was at its hottest, they didn’t perform well. Justin Stanton said at quarter time, we are turning the ball over from the backline. Well, the reason it was in your backline all the time was because your midfield lacked depth and got smashed when it mattered most.
JUSTIN: I will bounce right off that, because my cold was Pakenham as well and Alexandra is going to be a tough one. As Dave spoke about, they started off real cold and Seville booted the first five goals of the game and Pakenham arrested momentum to be down by nine points at half time. There was a really crucial period where Pakenham kicked three goals to be down by one, and Seville managed the next four goals to really tip the game. They are in a really dangerous spot against Alexandra, more to come on that in the next segment. But for hot, I don’t think you can get any hotter than this, Hallam is on fire, they are about to burn up. They are through to the grand final, 19-0 on the season and comfortably disposed of second-placed Dandenong West 76-32.
BLAIR: I will add on quickly. A man that I didn’t mention who is running hot is Will Howe from Narre Warren. Their season is done now but he kicked 20 goals in the final four games, including 4.7 on the weekend in a good win over Springy.
DAVE: Blair, I think Narre Warren is going to be a story in 2026. They’ve had a season in Southern 1 and I reckon they have acclimatised themselves now and will do what is needed to be a successful club next year.
BLAIR: Yeah, I agree.
FINALS MATCH-UP TO WATCH
BLAIR: We will bring it home with a finals match-up to watch. What finals game are you looking forward to Justin?
JUSTIN: I am really looking forward to Pakenham v Alexandra on Sunday. If you checked the score at quarter time, you would’ve probably thought that Pakenham would be playing Belgrave right now because they were trailing 39-1 at quarter time and came back to win that game by four points. They also have league-leading goalkicker Will Stewart who has kicked 60 goals this season, he had four in that elimination final and still missed a few chances as well. Pakenham is going to have its hands full down back, Alexandra love the contested footy and are a tough team to play against. Last time they played, Pakenham was undefeated at Toomuc Reserve, but Alexandra only lost by 16 points so they are going to have a real scare this weekend.
DAVE: One bloke is going to save week one of West Gippsland football’s finals and that is Nathan Gardiner. He is on 96 and he needs four goals to make it three-consecutive 100-goal seasons. That is going to save the first week of finals, because it is not a riveting week of finals. If you offered Phillip Island $100 for every point they win by this weekend, if they tried their hardest they could earn $10,000 this week because they could beat Kilcunda-Bass by 100 points if they wanted to. And I reckon Cora Lynn could earn $5k against Warragul Industrials, they could win by 50 if they really wanted to as well. So, that’s not at appetising first week of finals and it has been shaping up that way for a couple of months. West Gippsland finals will really start in week two when the four contenders remain and the rest of the teams have packed up.
JONTY: I am looking forward to Neerim South v Longwarry. Dave, you said last week that a high-scoring final would be excellent and we’ve got the two 100-goalkickers at either end of the field, playing against each other. Mason McGarrity and Jason Wells. Longwarry is coming off a really hard-fought win against Trafalgar, but the reason I find this one so interesting is because Longwarry is the only team in the top five that has only played Neerim once. They haven’t played them since the first month of the season and are probably seen as the biggest challenge to Neerim winning the premiership. Neerim South by 40 points.
BLAIR: The MPFNL because it is heating up. On Sunday, get to Baxter Park to watch Pearcedale v Somerville, there is no tomorrow and I think that is going to be a really good game. Pearcedale have been cruising all year, it was the year of the Dale, they finished top two…
JONTY: Cruising all year, tell me that wasn’t an accident.
BLAIR: Well, they weren’t cruising on the weekend because he (Cruiz West) was on the sidelines watching on. They were wounded big time. Brett Eddy hurt his ankle and is a question mark for this weekend, Mitch Davis (quad) won’t play this weekend, and they had another three guys on the bench injured. It will be an interesting game which will really test Pearcedale – I am actually going to tip Somerville by 14 points. The other game will also be interesting with Devon Meadows v Frankston Bombers, don’t rule Devon Meadows out – they really impressed me on the weekend. I am actually going to back them in to win.
DAVE: Ooh, that’s a big call.
BLAIR: Well that is another week of Let’s Talk Sport in the books. We’ll be back again next week and there will be plenty more to chat about.
