By Jonty Ralphsmith
Cranbourne is playing finals!
The Eagles have defied injuries, a poor start, an at-times makeshift forward line and a lot of doubters to reach the 2024 Southern Football Netball League Division 1 finals series.
Coming off two consecutive grand finals, including the premiership in 2022, questions were raised repeatedly throughout the season.
Is the streak of finals appearances over?
Is the team ever going to find continuity?
Most pertinently, the calculators have been handy to determine Cranbourne’s finals chances.
The Eagles surrendered control of their destiny a month ago when they lost to East Brighton.
Several results ultimately meant Cranbourne needed to win the last round game against Springvale Districts by a reasonably similar margin to East Brighton’s easier fixture against Chelsea Heights to deny the Vampires the capacity to make up the three percentage points difference.
The Eagles did not have an update on the score at the other game playing out concurrently, so Cranbourne merely maintained control of what was at their disposal.
“The whole week, our mindset was ‘focus on ourselves, focus on getting the win and everything else will look after itself’,” coach Steve O’Brien said.
While it started as a mini final to reach a top five Cranbourne has sat in for only three rounds this season, it finished as an excellent tune-up ahead of an elimination final next week.
An eight goal first quarter set up a 15.12 102 to 3.8 26 victory, the margin four points greater than East Brighton’s win.
Tyson Barry kicked five, Zak Roscoe ran amok and the midfield’s ability to win clearances with purpose and heat was finals-like.
After Springvale Districts kicked the first goal of the game inside 60 seconds, Cranbourne responded in a big way.
The hosts kicked goals at the three, seven, 10, 18, 19, 21, and 27-minute marks to take a big lead into the opening break and almost put the result beyond doubt.
Barry kicked three goals, Ryan Jones’ laser kicking inside-50 was Gryan Miers-like and Nick Darbyshire caused early headaches.
In between, there were moments of defensive application that would’ve done former skipper Brandon Osborne proud, his team kicking to the end named in his honour for the first time since it was unveiled following the previous game at Livingston Reserve.
Jordan Bertrand executed a brilliant goal-saving tackle midway through the first quarter, and Darbyshire laid a similar lunging tackle on Shakore Bragg-Taylor to set up a scoring shot.
The backline has stood up in the absence of Andrew Green and Brandon Osborne in the past month and mindset of defending has been a theme across the playing group
“There’s been a focus on (the defensive side) recently so to see it transpire the way it did on the weekend was a great result – that’s what we’re going to have to bring for the next month,” O’Brien said.
“The back seven have all gone to a new level to help cover and taken on a bit more responsibility as a group and as individuals.”
There was a sense of Cranbourne being back to their best; in-sync, fearsome, tough and quick-moving.
“It was a strong performance which we’re pretty proud of and now we’ve earned our ways into the finals,” O’Brien said.
“There were three or four occasions it looked like we were dead and buried but we stuck fat and kept working at getting better and working at what we needed to fix.
“We were able to get the ball from stoppage and get it going our way and our pressure was fantastic – we were able to keep the ball in our half and really capitalise.
“We’re playing some good footy so we go in with a lot of confidence.”
It was a performance that would have sent a shudder down the spines of Cheltenham, undefeated across the past three seasons except for games against Cranbourne.
While the Rosellas won both games this season, Cranbourne was gallant on each occasion.
The first challenge, though, will be a rematch against the Demons – but if there is one thing that is certain about the squad, it is that they know how to peak at the right time.
