BEYOND THE BOUNDARY – SEPTEMBER 9
No matter what the result of Saturday’s GDFNL grand final, a lengthy premiership drought will be broken at St Albans Reserve.
East Geelong is chasing its first flag since 2009 – and just its third senior premiership since winning the 1973 Division One title.
Werribee Centrals haven’t tasted the ultimate success since winning the last of their seven premierships in 2004.
The Eagles have created legitimate premiership chances in all three seasons under Ned Aulsebrook.
They finished as minor premier in 2024 before losing both the second semi and preliminary finals, and runner-up to North Geelong last year.
Aulsebrook is now hoping East can go one better again with the aid of the week off.
“It has been different… the first year we have sort of skipped that prelim weekend,” he said.
“We trained on Saturday. Our reserves played on Saturday. Unfortunately, they went down.
“But that allowed us to have that time together on Saturday.
“It didn’t feel too different to a normal week.
“As we had a big session, (I) told them to recover as normal and prepare for that session as normal.
So, it’s felt quite normal. It doesn’t feel like we’ve had too much of a break, which is nice.”
Werribee Centrals have had to come via the back door after losing to East in the qualifying final.
They’ve since seen off Belmont Lions, and minor premier Winchelsea took a berth in their first decider since 2010.
“Post-Covid, I think we won five games, and we had some really tough times there,” coach Rhyce Prismall said.
“I suppose the old days of Centrals with the Howletts and the Gilhams, they were very successful.
“But it’s probably when the Western region was probably a bit poorer, probably not much of a drawcard; there wasn’t as many clubs in our area.
“So, it was sort of you’re playing Werribee VFL- or VFA back then – or you’re playing at Werribee Centrals.
“They used to get a lot of good players in.
“As clubs came in and Wyndhamvale started getting more successful, it sort of diluted it a bit and became harder to recruit.
“Centrals sort of became the other club in the area.”
HEARTBREAK ON BOTH SIDES
For both clubs, there are players who would normally be part of their best twenty-two that won’t run out on to St Albans Reserve.
Having already also lost popular figure Jack Beardsell to a broken leg suffered mid-season, East was rocked by the seriousness of the injury suffered by Sam Lowe in the second semi-final win over Winchelsea.
After fighting back from a dislocated shoulder suffered in the pre-season, Lowe suffered a dislocated hip and fractured pelvis in a tackle against the Blues in his first senior appearance of the season.
A GoFundMe page has been established to help Lowe and his partner while he is off work.
“It’s a long road to recovery for ‘Slowey’,” Aulsebrook said. “I was on the phone to him Monday night, and he was still fairly horizontal.
“He’s moving around the house with a frame at the moment, a couple of times a day just to go to the toilet or whatever it is.
“I think he’s working through Yellowstone, which is his current Netflix series that he’s watching.
“But there’ll be a bit of that for Sam coming up, and it is devastating for him.
“The three years I’ve had at the club, he’s put in as much work as anyone, and he’s as influential on the group as anyone.
“For him to get all the way back into a second semi-final and work so hard to get there, and then for this to occur early in the game – and a completely unrelated injury – is just… devastating.
“To be honest, I’m so proud of how he’s handled it but also how everyone else around him has”
At Galvin Park, a serious knee injury suffered by inspirational captain Michael Culliver in the Round 16 win over the Belmont Lions threatened to derail their season.
“He just said straight away, ‘Let’s go. I’ll do whatever I need to do, help the group’,” Primsall recalled.
“And there’s a lot of blokes that look to him. You talk about Rock (assistant coach Shayne Stone), Micka’s impact on the club as an assistant coach and player is huge.
“From day one when I went there, I had ideas. But your ideas don’t get carried unless there’s someone driving it.
“You wouldn’t see him ever make it about him. So, he’s on the bench straight away; he’s the hype man.
“And he wasn’t there week one (of the finals) on the bench because he’s just had his surgery.
“So maybe he’s our little good luck charm for the last two, and he’ll be there on the bench on Saturday definitely.”
THIRD MEETING IN A MONTH
Saturday’s grand final will mark the third meeting between the two clubs since August 18.
East Geelong held off a furious final-quarter charge from Werribee Centrals to win by four points and snatch the double chance courtesy of Inverleigh’s upset of reigning premier North Geelong.
The Eagles outplayed the Centurions in the following week’s qualifying final, outscoring the Centurions ten goals to four across the second and third quarters.
“Don’t let them kick it to Caleb Ezard’s probably one,” Prismall said when asked how to reverse the result of the first final.
“Two good games of footy, though. I think the first game, if you watched it, it was just teams had their (momentum) swings, and that’s what good teams do.
“We were doing some film review (Tuesday) night, and the message isn’t that we’re going to stop them in every aspect. You know, they’re a good side. They’ve got weapons.
“Their midfield’s good, their back line’s solid and their forwards are dangerous.
“We’ll change a few things because you’d be stupid not to, but it’s just a game of footy.
“Two good sides going head-to-head. Hopefully, we last longer than they do sticking to the plan.”
Aulsebrook says the loss of Beardsell and the absence of talented forward Zac Smith had an impact, but also allowed for some experimentation.
“There was patches of this year where we were really down, and that was personnel-related at times,” he said.
“Obviously, Jack Beardsell and Zac Smith going down for an extended amount of time really threw us for a little bit.
“We threw the magnets around; had Andrew Steele up on a wing for a few weeks.
“We were trying all sorts of different things, and that’s one element of it, but we just couldn’t quite put four quarters together.”
“Then Jack Dickson came back into the fold late. We got him back for the last two rounds of the season, and we’re in a position where we needed to beat North, who we hadn’t beaten in five goes or something like that, and Werribee at home, which is the hardest road trip in the comp.
“We were aiming to win one to sneak in and go from there, but we managed to win both.
“And then Chris Moore and the Inverleigh Hawks did us a favour out the road, and we managed to fall into the top three, with a bit of form, so that’s really promising.”
Both clubs have settled on two changes.
East Geelong will welcome back captain John McIntyre and assistant coach Jake McLean from injury, replacing Lowe and the unlucky Lachie Zimmer.
McIntyre suffered a hamstring injury in the qualifying final win, while McLean has been battling the same issue since Round 18.
Werribee Centrals will be boosted by the inclusion of Kai Gomes Pattiyage (head knock) and Blake Taylor (hamstring), who have missed the past two finals.
Josh MacDonald is sidelined through suspension, with Ben Leonard getting the unwanted tap on the shoulder.
Meanwhile, Belmont Lions and Bell Post Hill do battle in the reserve grade decider.
A tight contest is expected after the minor premier Lions snuck past the Panthers by three points in the second semi-final.
The Lions will be affected by their senior team being knocked out, with GDFNL interleague rep Michael Murdoch not qualified after playing 16 senior matches during the home-and-away season.
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