QWAFL Preliminary Final Review
COORPAROO 11.13.79 DEFEATED YERONGA 4.7.31
Coorparoo have booked their place in the 2015 QWAFL Grand Final after comfortably defeating Yeronga by 48-points at Leyshon Park on Saturday.
The Navy Roos were shattered after a shock 4-point loss to Coolangatta last weekend, but they bounced back in style on Saturday, dominating from start to finish.
Emma Zielke and Sally Young were sublime for Coorparoo, winning the hard ball out of the guts to bomb the ball inside fifty from the get go.
Hannah Sexton and Mackenzie Arnold bag goals for Coorparoo inside the first five minutes, and the lead could have bigger at quarter time if not for some wayward kicking.
Leading by 17-points at the first change, Yeronga needed a spark to start the second term, but the Navy Roos did an excellent job to shut the Devils down, forcing them into turnovers.
It was a fairly even quarter and Yeronga did a great job to limit Coorparoo’s scoring opportunities, but a late five minute flurry saw the Navy Roos boot two goals and head into half-time 33-points clear.
The third-quarter was do-or-die for the Devils, but unfortunately they couldn’t stop Coorparoo’s pressure.
The Navy Roos completely dominated the third term, kicking three goals to zero to blow their lead out to 53-points at the final change.
The final quarter was all but a formality, but the Devils continued to fight, kicking two class goals through Hayley Newberry and Selina Puruntatameri to finish the game on a high.
It wasn’t to be for the Devils on Saturday afternoon, but they have plenty to hold their heads high about. Back-to-back preliminary final appearances and a huge win over Coolangatta in 2015 are nothing to sneeze over.
The 48-point win for Coorparoo now sees them move to next weeks final against Coolangatta, which history suggests should be an absolute ripper.
Coach’s thoughts
Sally Young – Coorparoo
“We put emphasis on forgetting about last week and focusing on being here to play footy, needing to win the one and ones and winning it out of the middle, and that’s exactly what we did.
“Really happy with the midfield, even when we weren’t winning the taps clean out, we were working hard to lay the next tackle and get the ball back, and I think we did it well.
“It’s always a focus to get to the ball first, we know Yeronga have good foot skills so we couldn’t let them get to it first, so we just had to apply the pressure and we did that.
“I’m very proud of the group, the girls all stood up they all played their roles, it all clicked and it was awesome.”
Scott Stephens – Yeronga
“The girls were up for three weeks, but they just couldn’t get up for this one – when you have a young team that is going to happen.
“We were outclassed by an experienced team who wanted to play a grand final, I’m shattered of course but the girls gave it everything.
“What I was pleased with was our character, we went down swinging, we won the final quarter and just didn’t lie down.
“We have achieved a lot this season and when you take into account that we had a turnover of 50% I think we did very well.”
By Grant Hitzman
