Yarraville-Seddon withstood a fierce second-half rally from Hoppers Crossing to end its Western Football League division 1 rival’s flag defence and advance to a preliminary final.
The Eagles led by 37 points at the 22-minute mark of the second term and appeared all but home in the semi-final.
However, the Warriors, who won last year’s flag from fifth spot, piled on the next seven goals to lead by four points at the four-minute mark of the last term.
But Lachlan Green had the final say, nailing the final two majors of the match as Yarraville-Seddon secured a rousing eight-point win, 10.10 (70)-9.8 (62).
The result sets up a rematch against Caroline Springs after the Eagles lost their qualifying final a week earlier, with the winner to face Werribee Districts in the grand final.
“It was a terrific win. We got off to probably the start we wanted and in the second half we knew they were going to come, but we held them off,” Yarraville-Seddon coach Brad Julier said.
“They’re the reigning premiers and have quite a bit of experience in there. We’re quite young and I think beating them a couple of weeks ago gave us a bit of belief that we could have a similar type of game, so the boys knew they could do it.
“It was a really mature win. A lot of our young guys really stood up, which was very pleasing. The younger brigade were awesome for us.”
Julier lauded Daniel Snell and West Baker for their performances, while 16-year-old Griffin Barker also shone in his second senior game.
Kobe Cikala was named the Eagles’ best, while Green bagged four goals to take his season tally to 31.
Isaac Kaddour, Akol Deng and Ethan Williamson were others who made vital contributions.
Julier admitted he was concerned as Hoppers Crossing’s charge gathered momentum.
“You always worry,” he said.
“In the third quarter, they had the wind and we knew they were going to come at us. They hit the front early in the last and we had the wind, but we knew that wasn’t going to do it for us.
“Our back end of quarters have been good, so we knew we’d get our time.”
Yarraville-Seddon led Caroline Springs by 12 points at half-time of the qualifying final before conceding 11 goals to three after the main break.
“Our first half was really good against them,” Julier said.
“We’ve seen where it went wrong for us, so we’ll try and get that right this week and (we’re) confident going in that we can put up a good fight.”
The Eagles are chasing their first division 1 grand final berth since their amalgamation at the end of 2006. Yarraville won the top-flight flag in 1997.
“That’s Yarraville-Seddon’s first finals win in 28 years in A grade,” Julier said.
“Getting to a prelim, it would be the first grand final in a long time if we get there and I think it would be the first A grade as Yarraville-Seddon. The last one was as Yarraville.
“It’s a pretty exciting time. It’s another year of improvement for us, another step for us. We’ve improved every year. If you get a grand final, it’s 50-50.”
