Woodend-Hesket was able to hold its composure late to get its first finals win in the Riddell District Football League since 2008.
It was a case of deja vu early for the Hawks, as for a second week in a row they got off to a slow start.
On Sunday, they trailed Romsey by 22 points at the opening break. The margin was still 17 points at half time.
The Hawks managed to get in front in the third quarter and led by two points heading into the final quarter.
Like all the finals so far, this one would be another thriller with the Hawks getting over the line, 9.9 (63)- 8.12 (60).
Hawks coach Josh Pound said they didn’t do much different from last week to hold on and get the win, instead of running out of legs,
“It was an amazing win, given we didn’t make it easy for ourselves being down by three or four goals,” he said.
“Credit to the guys they ground themselves back into the game and were able to hold on. We didn’t do much different but the backs of Bowen, Pears and Chappy [Tyson Chapman] in those big moments late put their bodies on the line.
“I felt like we were more composed in those susceptible moments.”
The move of Pears into defence was one change they did make. Pound said after their studying of the game they wanted to bring in another key back and allow Marcus Stapleton to still have a bit of freedom.
“We wanted someone to do a one-on-one role and we looked to Pears who had done it 100 times at AFL level and he did the job.”
Jake Arceri, Tom Gawthrop, Tom O’Loughlin and Kyle Baker kicked two goals each for the Hawks.
Pound said that Chapman had a really strong game down back, Gawthrop presented a real target with no Dan Davie and Riley Ferguson did a good job spending more time in the ruck.
For the Redbacks, Corey Pertzel kicked three goals and Jack Jedwab kicked two.
Pertzel, Ben Way and Jaxson Kinnear were their best.
The Hawks now face Wallan for a spot in the grand final, with Diggers Rest awaiting the winner.
Pound said now the group had a finals win under their belt there was a bit of belief in the group.
“There’s two more weeks left in the season,” he said.
“We did the right things to give ourselves a chance next week. We’ve played Wallan twice in three weeks, so we’ll look at the mix during the week.”
The Hawks reserves also won through to a preliminary final.
Tara Murray
