Bright to take on Bonnie Doon in Grand Final

GRETA’S senior side will be ruing missed opportunities in their forward 50 after a loss to Bright in Saturday’s preliminary final at Tarrawingee. The Blues had plenty of scoring shots but couldn’t make the most of them, downed 8.19 (67) to the Mountain Men’s 12.7 (76). With a spot in next week’s grand final against Bonnie Doon up for grabs, both sides exploded into the contest, as Greta slotted the first goal of the game through Frazer Judd. However, the Mountain Men warmed into the match, producing a six goal first term to take a 23 point lead at quarter time. While the Blues’ forward 50 pressure and work at the contest was exceptional, Bright found a way to clear the footy, transitioning end to end through smart ball movement and clean skills resulting in effective shots on goal. Trailing by 19 points with 10 behinds heading into the second half of the match, Greta stepped up to the challenge, but still failed to make the most of their forward 50 entries with snaps under pressure flying wide. With the majority of the ball and solid defensive work, the Blues fell short of a comeback, as Bright proved too strong and will now face the Bombers this weekend for the flag. Bright coach Paul Harrison said his side’s defensive pressure got them over the line. “I know it looks like if they had kicked straight they would’ve won, but from our perspective, a lot of the shots they had were on the run, on sharp angles,” he said. “We were forcing them as wide as possible, I think they only had five set shots for the entire game – the rest of them were shots they were trying to force. “We were able to move the ball really well a lot of the time, and transition it from across our half back to deep into our forward half. “It’s something we do work on a lot, so it was pleasing to see it come off. “At times, I think we took too many short kicks when we had the flow of the game – we tried to force things to happen when we didn’t need to. “Our back half once again was terrific, and they’re going to have an even bigger job this week.” Greta coach Greg Newbold said injuries throughout the finals series forced an unfortunate end to an otherwise brilliant season. “In eight quarters of football, we’ve done three ankles, two ACLs, one meniscus, a hamstring and a concussion, that’s what’s happened to us in the last eight quarters,” he said. “We had a really good start to the game and gave up goals in the back half of the first quarter which put us on the back foot. “From then on, we just weren’t able to convert - from 2.1 in the first quarter we kicked 6.18. “We missed shots we should’ve landed, missed passes we should’ve hit. “The two things that are most important statistics in football at times are scoreboard pressure and injuries – unfortunately, both of those things have accounted for us this year. “We miss out, but we’ll live to fight another day next year.” The Mountain Men will take on Bonnie Doon this Saturday at WJ Findlay Oval in the senior grand final, after the reserve decider between Bright and Benalla All Blacks.