Mountain Men scrape past Baggies
WIMMERA MAIL-TIMES
And so it was again at North Park at the weekend, when the Mountain Men held on in a frantic last quarter to post a three-point win over the Baggies.
Laharum had most of the attack in the early-going and jumped out to a 20-point lead at the first change.
From then the Baggies dug their heels in and slowly closed the gap on their higher-ranked opponents.
They drew within three points twice in the final quarter but could not take the lead, as midfielders James Wray and Robbie Miller led the way for the Mountain Men.
The two sides met in last season's first semi-final which the Baggies won despite losing to the Mountain Men by 114 points earlier in the season.
Damon Folkes booted three goals for the Baggies and Isaac Rathgeber had two, while Jason Przibilla, Wray and Shannon Argall all had two for Laharum.
Reigning Dellar Family medallist Ricky Whitehead showed plenty of good form in the match and will be an important cog for Swifts if the team is to go deep into the finals.
Baggies co-coach Ben Martin said the three-point loss was not disappointing for his team.
"They got the jump on us in the first quarter and that was probably the difference in the end," he said.
"I think at the end of the day we probably got more out of that game than they did psychologically because last time we played they beat us by 10 goals and we also showed that we can play in the wet."
With the team missing key forwards Jeremey Joiner and Lachie Hamilton, Martin said the side would only get stronger in the finals.
Last Modified on 26/03/2014 22:38