By AKSHAY KAPADIA
TULLAMARINE faced Oak Park at Coburg City Oval in a Preliminary Final battle for the right to face Craigieburn in the Essendon Ford Division 1 Grand Final.
The Demons were simply outclassed and outplayed against the Eagles the previous week at Windy Hill.
The next day Oak Park continued their winning streak (and Westmeadows’ Semi Final losing streak), winning by 91 points.
Oak Park needed to be competitive this time around, as they really hadn’t really troubled Tullamarine in the home-and-away season.
The Kangaroos got the first centre clearance of the game, which was a positive sign before the first goal of the game was scored by Danny Campbell.
Tullamarine hit back straight away with a goal to Joel Flanigan.
What ensued for the rest of the quarter was tough and physical. Small fights between individual players would break out and then disappear. Tullamarine had the better half of the possession in the quarter, but they were not able to capitalize as well as they could have.
The Demons only managed four goals from their seven scores, while Oak Park was very straight in front of the sticks and were able to stay in the game with five goals straight in the first term.
Tullamarine received a free kick from the centre bounce at the start of the second term and tried their luck up forward first up.
This didn’t go anywhere, but they were able to get the first two goals of the quarter thanks to Justin Marcy and Will Becker.
The spot fires from earlier dissipated in the second quarter as both teams looked more towards the game rather than picking fights with each other.
Before half time Oak Park were able to get their way back into the game with two goals, which gave them a four-point lead.
However a final goal to Dean Simmons gave Tullamarine a two-point lead going into the main break.
Oak Park got the first goal of the third term to restore their lead.
But three goals to end the quarter for Tullamarine had the Demons up by 17 points going into the last break.
This was the biggest lead either team had had for the entire game, and Tullamarine had the capability of capitalising on this lead in the last.
But it was a game for Oak Park to chase. And chase they did.
Tullamarine held the majority of the possession in their forward 50 for the start of the final quarter but they were not able to kick straight – missing several opportunities to kick further clear.
This is where Oak Park came back into the game, as they kicked the next three of four goals to have the scores level with only a few minutes to play.
Both sides battled hard to kick the winner but nothing worked either way.
In the 29th minute the ball was kicked into the Tullamarine goal square and a mad scramble for the ball resulted in Jordan Port winning a free kick on a slight angle close to goal.
He kicked the goal and put Tullamarine six points up.
Oak Park had one last crack at sending the Prelim into extra time, but time simply ran out.
TULLAMARINE | 12.14-86
Goal Kickers: W. Becker 2, A. Liberatore 2, D. Bartrop 2, J. Flanigan 2, J. Marcy, D. Simmons, J. Port, C. Pereira-Oliva
Best Players: C. Steele, D. Brockway, D. Bartrop, D. Simmons, J. Burns, D. Scott
OAK PARK | 12.8-80
Goal Kickers: C. Hare 2, L. Howard 2, T. Anderson 2, D. Campbell, D. Smith, R. Bloomfield, B. Cronin, A. Harris
Best Players: E. McConnell, R. Bloomfield, S. Bryce, M. Burger, L. Howard, J. Pascu
