EAST POINT has marched into the Ballarat Football League preliminary final while silencing its share of doubters with a confident victory over Lake Wendouree on Saturday at Eastern Oval.
Inspired by an eight-goal haul from full forward Dan Jordan, the Red Lion Kangaroos powered past the Lakers to win 17.14 (116) to Lake Wendouree's 13.11 (89).
Fresh from the morale-boosting victory, the Roos now face Ballarat, a team they have comfortably beaten twice this season, for the chance to meet Darley in the RegionalOne BFL grand final in a fortnight.
East Point coach Michael Hynes described his team's workrate as "fantastic", attributing the win to his team's ability to give Jordan every opportunity to score.
"We knew Lake Wendouree averaged 11 to 12 goals a game, so we knew, if we could get the ball into our forward line on a nice day, we could score enough goals to get over them," Hynes said.
"Dan Jordan was fantastic. The great thing is, with guys like him and (Simon) Geljon up forward, you don't waste the footy going out wide. If you keep directing the football to Jordan he will win it nine times out of 10."
Jordan imposed himself on the match early, kicking East Point's first three goals of the match against Lakers skipper Gavin Webb and blunting some of the enthusiasm the Lakers had carried into the match.
However, the momentum for the Kangaroos started in the middle of the ground, Shane Hutchinson racking up 11 possessions in the first term and Peter Blanchfield closely wearing Lake Wendouree coach Matt Battistello.
"Battistello is a very good player so, if you can get into his head and get him concentrating on something other than football, it can have an effect on the rest of the team," Hynes explained.
In contrast, East Point's forwards proved too experienced and too strong for the Lake Wendouree defence.
The Lakers' forwards found goals harder to come by.
Kangaroos defender Josh Discher made life difficult for Tim Madden while Jay Pritchard had the better of a number of opponents.
East Point's pressure on the Lakers' midfield had two other effects: the Roos gave away quite a few free kicks due to high tackles, but it also appeared to put the Green Machine off its game.
A melee erupted in the middle of the ground at quarter-time.
While the Lakers drew within three goals in the second term and continued applying scoreboard pressure until the final siren, East Point never appeared in danger of dropping the match.
"Today our best wasn't good enough," Battistello said.
"East Point had a very good third quarter, but I didn't think there was any point in the game that was the difference."
Battistello highlighted the effort of Billy Anderson, who was switched onto Shane Hutchinson after quarter-time.
"We had no stand-outs, but we didn't have anyone who played badly either," he said.
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