Modewarre isn’t ruling out making a fairytale tilt at a second Bellarine premiership after seeing off Geelong Amateur in today’s BFNL elimination final by 33 points at Portarlington’s Ron Evans Oval.
However, the Warriors’ hopes of advancing beyond next week’s first semi-final have suffered a blow, with Josh Finch failing to see out the game.
Arguably the most influential player in the 15.9 (99) to 9.12 (66) victory, the four-time Ash medalist hobbled from the field with a calf injury during the final quarter.
In the rooms, Finch, whose durability has defined his 325-game career, had an ice pack strapped to his left leg.
“It’s not looking that flash, but Finchy’s never had a soft-tissue injury in his life,” coach Mark Hovey told krockfootball.live.
“He’s unaware of the severity of it at the moment.
“But, when you’ve done a calf or you feel like there’s an issue with your calf, it’s usually not great.
“Fingers crossed he can get up, but it’s probably not looking ideal at the minute.”
With the game in the balance, after Pegs’ talisman Paddy Dowling cut the margin to five points midway through the third quarter, three Modewarre goals during time-on proved crucial.
Two of Cohuna recruit Jake Thrum’s three goals for the day bookended a nice finish from Seb Hutley, extending the Warriors’ lead to 24 points at three-quarter time.
A classy goal from Matty McKim snuffed out any chance of an Amateur fightback in the final term, before Thrum and veteran forward Tom Hornsey put the icing on a very tasty cake for the Warriors.
“The way the boys played today, I’m so proud of them, and they’ve done that for a fair part of the year,” Hovey said.
“I’ve said it plenty of times: we’re not a bunch of names, and we have a go, and we try hard, and we’ve got a real defensive mindset with the way we play.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to work on all year because I knew if we could play like that, it stands up in big games, and it clearly did today.”
Modewarre spearhead Connor Joseph’s impressive season in front of goal continued.
He kicked five goals in the first half before finishing the match with six to take his season tally to 58.
For Geelong Amateur co-coach Riley Kershaw, it was a disappointing end to a season that promised so much.
BFNL: ANGLESEA EYES FIRST GRAND FINAL SINCE 2000
Ammos handed Torquay its only loss of the home-and-away season in Round 13, with many expecting their classy lineup to be the Tigers’ challenger for the premiership.
“You can’t have a 60-70 per cent season, and I think the high and lows… they’ve got to be closer together,” Kershaw.
“If they’re low, they can’t be rock-bottom, and I think we found ourselves in that position too many times, notably in the last 4-5 weeks.
“It’s got to be somewhere more in the middle, in terms of leaking goals.
“It’s got to be two or three goals not four, five, six, seven, or whatever it might be.
“That’s probably the main message we take out of that, I think.”
Already missing experienced big man Nick Nott, Geelong Amateur suffered another blow in the buildup to the game with former Geelong-listed midfielder Oscar Brownless ruled out with a calf injury.
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