Belmont Lions are one win away from their first grand final appearance since 2007 after an impressive second-half performance helped them to a 50-point qualifying final win over Werribee Centrals at St Albans Reserve.
Trailing by four points at half-time, the Lions slammed on 11 goals to two to book a second semi-final meeting with East Geelong.
The 16.10 (106) to 8.8 (56) victory was just the Lions’ third finals win since the GDFNL returned to a single division in 1996.
“I’m so proud of them,” co-coach Andy Walsgott said. “The whole game, I was proud of them, the way they applied themselves.
“They soaked up a lot of pressure in the first half, and we didn’t capitalise in the first half.
“I asked them to go again at half-time and keep doing those things I spoke about, and they delivered.
“I just said, ‘It (the game) will open up – we know it always opens up. It might open up for them. It might open up for us. We’ve got to stay present and keep doing the things we’ve been speaking about and keep cracking in’.
“And I said, ‘It will turn – we’ve just got to be ready when it does’.
GDFNL: SCOREBOARD – FINALS WEEK ONE
Torquay premiership player Dave Allitt again showed why he’s been one of the best recruits into the GDFNL this year.
He kicked four goals before being moved into the midfield.
“He had four at half-time – probably should have been five,” Walsgott said.
“Then we flipped him to the midfield just to get a bit of run through there.
“He was everywhere today.”
Playing in his first senior final, Ben Evans relished the opportunity to play on St Albans Reserve.
He had played all his football with the Supersaints before joining the Lions in 2021 and kicked four goals to take his tally to 48 for the season.
Evans’ brother Jak, Brad Michell and Jake Wood also impressed for the Lions.
Werribee Centrals coach Rhyce Prismall says he didn’t feel his team was playing well despite leading at the main break.
“To come in at half-time with a small lead, I’d call it a fluke or a bit lucky, and the message was, ‘we’ve got a lot to improve on,’ he said.
“They were playing really good footy, but we were unsure if they were going to be able to hold their running game for the full two hours.
“I knew we had better footy to play in the second half.
“We had a lot of the play in the first few minutes; we just couldn’t kick any goals.
“We really struggled to get any reward for effort today, and they’d go down and score an early goal.”
The Centurions will face the winner of Sunday’s elimination final between Thomson and Bannockburn in next week’s first semi-final.
“I was pretty negative after the game and pretty hard on them, which I’m not normally,” he said.
“A few blokes needed to hear they needed to be better.
“But, I finished with the fact we won 14 games and done a lot of work since late October.
“We got the double chance, and now we have to use it.”
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