By David Nagel
Trying to forecast the flight path of a football season is a proven mugs game; but Kilcunda-Bass has given itself every reason to believe that a first finals appearance could be on the cards in the West Gippsland Football Netball Competition (WGFNC) in 2024.
The Panthers are one of four clubs – alongside Bunyip, Garfield and Korumburra-Bena – that have yet to experience the thrill and excitement of playing finals football since the WGFNC began in 2017.
It’s a damming statistic considering the two trendsetters; Cora Lynn and Phillip Island, have played in 13 finals apiece.
The Panthers came close in the inaugural season, finishing with a 9-9 record, but have failed to threaten ever since.
Three poor seasons in 2018 (2-16), 2019 (3-15) and 2021 (3-8) proved the Panthers were a long way off the mark.
Class inclusions such as Dale Gawley and Nathan Foote saw the Panthers improve to a 7-11 record in the last two years…but this time it feels a little different.
Recent history would suggest that 10 (2022) or 11 (2023) wins is the number required to navigate your way to finals and the Panthers appear on track.
They improved their record to three and one with a rollercoaster 11.12(78) to 8.19(67) victory over Kooweerup on Saturday.
The Panthers had the opener on the board in a tick over 30 seconds, with Gawley and Foote the first two players to get a touch of the Sherrin.
Gawley tapped to Foote, who handballed to winger Cam McKenzie and the Panthers had the opening entry of the match.
A strong tackle from Travis Tuck spilled the ball to Jed Rosenow, who handballed quickly to Dean McRae for the first six-pointer of the contest.
Foote then won a free kick at the 18-minute mark and the Panthers led by 15 points at quarter time.
Inaccurate kicking at goal cost the Panthers a bigger lead; but they dodged some bullets of their own in the second term.
The big sticks at the scoreboard end of Denhams Road appeared to have been sprayed with ball repellent, with the Demons backing up the Panthers’ 2.6 first quarter with 1.7 of their own.
The Panthers were a lot more efficient at the opposite end of the ground with goals to Jack Soroczynski, McRae, and another to Tuck, opening up a 35-point lead; 12 minutes in to the second.
Ironically it took a long bomb from classy half-back Tim Miller to give the Demons their first of the match at the 20-minute mark of the second quarter.
Three further missed opportunities for Kooweerup saw the margin reduced to 23 points – 5.9(39) to 1.10(16) – at the major interval.
The Panthers then appeared to take total control of the contest when Soroczynski took a strong mark and snapped truly from the boundary line to make it 28 points the difference, five minutes into the third.
Luke McMaster then answered quickly for the Demons; taking the advantage from a free kick, to keep their winning hopes on life support.
Kilcunda-Bass then kicked the next three goals – all via the left feet of Ash Grenness, Tuck and Brad Aldwell – to take a game-high 41-point lead at the 18-minute mark of the third.
The Demons had kicked two goals for the match; denying their past champions from their 1969, 1979 and 1981 premiership teams – who were in attendance for a reunion – the opportunity to get involved.
It was looming as a dreary old day at Denhams Road.
But McMaster gave the old-timers something to cheer about at the 21-minute mark, and when he set Brodie Yapp up for his one-and-only goal for the match, the Demons had closed to 28 points at three-quarter-time.
New playing coach Dale Alanis then hyped his team up at the final break before leading his charges into battle.
Alanis had a direct hand in the opening three goals of the final term.
He first handballed to Tom Glen, who kicked the first at the two-minute mark of the final stanza, before hitting up Bailey Galante for another after five minutes play.
For all their impotency in the front half in the first 80 minutes of footy, the Demons were only 15 points down – five minutes into the last – and had all the momentum.
Alanis then brought the Kooweerup crowd to its feet with a magnificent goal; first gathering the ball and dishing off, then receiving the ball back in heavy congestion.
He dodged, he weaved; and through pure desire slammed one through at the 16-minute mark to cut the margin to six.
The Kooweerup crowd was alive and the Panthers needed to respond.
They needed someone; anyone…to stand up.
McKenzie answered the call with some clean disposal on centre wing, finding Soroczynski, who kicked deftly to a very quiet Anthony Daraio.
The classy forward then calmly slotted a set shot to kick the margin back to 12 points…18 minutes into the last.
Matt Voss then capped off a great game through the midfield and in the ruck with a clever check-side kick to cut the deficit back to seven points at the 23-minute mark.
Both teams lifted their intensity, but a miss from Alanis, after 25 minutes, gave the Panthers a final chance to swoop.
Jayden Goumas won a crucial ball in the centre of the ground and launched a long one from outside 50, which dribbled through, to give the Panthers a match-winning lead.
After kicking nine of the first 11 goals of the match; the Panthers had survived a thrilling comeback from the hosts.
McRae and Tuck kicked two each for the winners, a total matched by Soroczynski who was clearly one of the best players on the ground.
Gawley and Foote also made great contributions, while Jayden Graham was a key rock in the back half.
The Demons were gallant in defeat, but just left too much to do in a very small space of time.
Voss was simply magnificent, while players like Alanis, Glen, Trav Bindley and Zak Banks tried gamely to pull it out of the fire.
The Demons head to Tooradin this week, hoping to play four good quarters of footy, while the Panthers will make it a 4-1 record when they roll out the red-carpet for Bunyip.
Rounds 10 to 15 will tell us if the Panthers play finals football this season…but for now they’ve got reason to dream!
