SWFL: South Bunbury fall short of minor premiership despite 41-point win over Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault

South Bunbury fell short of pinching the South West Football League’s minor premiership despite beating Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault by 41 points at Hands Oval on Sunday. The reigning premiers’ task of beating the Lions by about 15 goals to achieve the requisite percentage boost to vault ahead of Busselton into the ladder’s top spot had some difficulty added by frigid, wet and windy conditions. Though they proved far too good for the visitors to run out 9.6 (60) to 2.7 (19) winners, they have finished the season in second spot on the ladder, despite losing only two games of a home and away season they closed out on a 13-game winning streak. The weekend’s results have set up a cross-town clash between South Bunbury and Bunbury in the first qualifying final at Hands Oval on Saturday, where the winners will earn the right to take on Busselton with a grand final spot on the line. Meanwhile, the Lions will head to Kelly Park to take on Carey Park in the elimination final on Sunday. In the difficult conditions, the class of Shaun Crane, Jace Cormack, Blaine Johnson and Kade Wallrodt (all two goals) came to the fore for the winners. Stalwart ruckman Jack Fletcher gave his all in his 100th game for HBL and playing interim coach Jesse Crichton and captain Zavier Williams did what they could in defence but the Lions lacked any offensive punch in the wet. Kicking with a howling wind in their backs in the first term, the Lions came up with the game’s first goal through Jordan Westaway producing a finish in a tight space at a forward-50 stoppage. But as the breeze eased, South Bunbury duly responded with a run of seven unanswered goals across the remainder of the first half to take a 33-point lead into the main break. The Tigers were at their blistering best in a second term which saw them kick five goals and restrict the visitors to only a solitary behind, which included a brilliant goal from Crane where the veteran evaded a pair of tacklers and snapped truly from the boundary and two quality finishes from Cormack. HBL finally got their second goal of the day as time-on approached in the third term through Taine Williams grabbing the ball out of a ruck contest and finding the major opening from close range. But their chance to build any momentum was quickly sapped by the day’s heaviest shower beginning to tumble down, turning the end of the game into a classic display of wet-weather football. After South Bunbury’s Bodhi Nordahl made a certainty of the result with a goal in the early stages of the final term, the sting gradually faded out of the contest across a conclusion which did not reach any great heights.