Spotswood is seeking a swift response after losing its qualifying final to Sunshine Kangaroos by 14 points at Wyndham Vale South Oval on Saturday.
The Woodsmen have the benefit of a double chance after an impressive first home-and-away season under new coach Anthony Eames, but they will have to surrender it much earlier than they would have liked after being out-played by an in-form Kangaroos side that has upset the first and second ranked finalists in consecutive weeks.
“You fight for it so you can put it aside for situations like this,” Eames said.
“The unfortunate thing now is every week’s an elimination.
“That’s all right, sometimes you find out about players when their backs are against the wall.
“We have to find something this week at training and produce that on Saturday.”
Spotswood came to play, opening up a 13-point quarter-time lead.
The second quarter would be their undoing though, with Sunshine putting its foot on the accelerator with a 5.7 to 0.1 term
The Woodsmen could not get a handle on a Kangaroos midfield that was running like clockwork.
“I thought their run and carry through the middle in the second quarter hurt us and they got a bit of a gap on the scoreboard because of that,” Eames said.
“Sunshine’s bigger bodies gave us a good old work out, which they always do, they’re always hard at it.
“All things being fair, where the game was at at half-time was where it should’ve been.”
Sunshine’s 23-point, half-time lead was by no means safe. Spotswood found something when the going got tough and managed to peg the deficit to within seven points in the last term.
“We weren’t all that far off, but if they had’ve kicked straight, it probably puts us a bit deeper obviously,” Eames said,
“I thought we fought it out and kept having a crack.
“Our skill level probably hurt us in the third and fourth quarters.”
Skipper Murray Boyd sparked the Spotswood fightback from the ruck. Swingman Gareth Newton worked hard at both ends of the ground, while Sam Davis and Nayef Hamad rose to the challenge of playing in the finals.
Spotswood will face Hoppers Crossing in a do-or-die semi-final at Burbank Oval on Sunday.
Hoppers Crossing advanced after surviving a scare to beat Werribee Districts by seven points in the elimination final on Sunday.
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