Old Xavs met St Bedes Mentone on a cold and blustery day at the home of amateur football for the VAFA, Sportscover Arena, for this preliminary final match.

The game began with Old Xavs attacking to the northern end of the ground favoured by a 3-4 goal breeze and we knew from the first bounce that we had a real contest on our hands as St Bedes Mentone ran hard, put immense pressure on our ball carriers and we uncharacteristically fumbled and wasted the ball all too often.

We really struggled to use the ball cleanly when we did have possession and St Bedes on the other hand were very direct and pin point with their passing.

Into the wind, St Bedes looked far more dangerous and at quarter time, the scoreboard showed we held a 1 point lead – not enough given the breeze.

Goals were scored in this first term by Jack Stean (2) and Jon Mercuri.

The second quarter saw more of the same style of play that was witnessed in the first quarter – we were more often than not second to the ball and when we did get our hands on it, St Bedes were all over us and using the ball effectively was extremely difficult.

Meanwhile, the scoreboard was ticking over with St Bedes goals and we were working very hard just to get the ball into our attacking half.

We were unable to score a goal in this quarter and St Bedes now owned a 16 point half time lead.

The third quarter we knew we required a big effort to use the breeze efficiently and start putting some scoreboard pressure on an upbeat and dogged St Bedes Mentone unit who were clearly ‘switched on’ for the contest.

The signs were promising and we attacked a lot more than we did in the first half.

However, St Bedes did not relax either and both sides scored 5 goals for the quarter meaning we gathered for the three quarter time huddle with St Bedes holding a 15 point lead.

Goals in the third quarter were kicked by Colbert (2), Goss (2) and Mercuri.

We spoke about the possibility of kicking goals into the wind at the three quarter time huddle; we had seen St Bedes Mentone kick 8 of their 11 goals (to that stage) into the breeze and we realized it would take an incredible effort to pull off this victory but we all believed it could be done.

The last quarter started and we were battling hard but to no avail.

St Bedes kicked an early goal and were maintaining their pressure on us whenever we had the ball. They ‘choked’ our style of play with numbers around the footy and some sensational tackling pressure.

Old Xavs looked more and more unlikely to get our noses in front and St Bedes on the other hand, looked increasingly committed and on track for a well earned victory.

And so it turned out that St Bedes ran away with the game and when the final siren sounded, they had secured a place in this year’s grand final v Collegians.

Matt Handley kicked two goals in the last quarter to steady the ship somewhat.

The final margin was 34 points and we now look to review our year and regroup after a very disappointing end to what promised to be an exciting finals series for us.

Good luck to both teams next week – we’ll be watching with interest to see who wins this year’s premiership.