Eastlake stormed into the AFL Canberra grand final with a 26-point over the minor premier Queanbeyan Tigers, who suffered two season-ending injuries on a horror Saturday afternoon at home.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Alex Page left the field early in the first quarter and was set to have surgery on Saturday night to repair a broken collarbone, while Jonathon Bowyer tore his ACL barely not even five minutes into the contest.
It capped a miserable day for Adrian Pavese's charges who must now beat the winner of Sunday's elimination final between Belconnen and Ainslie for another crack at Eastlake in two weeks.
Meanwhile Eastlake are one win away from their first top-grade AFL Canberra premiership since 2001 after producing a powerful second-half surge to notch a second-straight win over the Tigers.
"To win out here is a big effort, Queanbeyan know this ground better than anybody of course," Eastlake coach John Harper said.
"Just the belief now of our players knowing they can match it with the best sides here in this comp is ideal for our preparation going into a grand final now.
"The group's just grown and that's what I've been really pleased with. Sometimes when you're a first year coach of a club it might take you two years to get things right.
"Nobody's questioned what I've put in place, they've believed in it and they see it works. They've been a really good group to coach.
"We've got an opportunity, there's a couple of others sides that'll battle it out the next couple of weeks. We'll just sit back, rest up, get our injuries right and everybody hopefully cherry ripe."
Eastlake led by three points at half-time on a blustery day at Margaret Donoghoe Sportsground, and the Tigers were unable to use the wind advantage offered to them in the third term.
Pavese was confident his side could bounce back next week, with key men Anthony Lo Pilato and Tim Clowry both in line for a return from injury.
MORE CANBERRA SPORT
"The boys are just hurting, they know what we dished up today wasn't probably the best," Pavese said.
"Two guys down, and season ending injuries, it threw us around a little bit, we just couldn't recover.
"We had lots of entries inside 50 but just lacked a bit of polish in the end.
"There was nothing they threw at us today that we didn't know they were going to do, they just executed really well where we were pretty sloppy."
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
