Harper Sercombe
Darley made it 10 in row and locked in a Ballarat Football League grand final spot in the process.
The Devils cruised past North Ballarat on Saturday afternoon and have staked their claim as the flag favourites, with reigning premiers and 2023 minor premiers, Melton got beaten and kicked out of the finals the following day.
The Roosters failed to fire a shot against the Devils trailing by eight points at quarter time and quickly grew to a 19 point half time lead.
The game started to open up for the Devils after the break, booting five third term goals to put them up 50 points.
The Roosters finally were able to add to their goal tally, kicking two of their three majors in the last term.
The Devils cruised home for the 14.5 (89)-3.10 (28) win.
The goals came from everywhere for the Devils, with 10 individual goal kickers, including skipper Brett Bewley’s two, Billy Myers’ two and Mace Cousins’ three.
President Mark Shelly said the clash with North Ballarat was a bit easier than anticipated.
“We certainly were confident that we could win but to think we were going to win by 10 goals is probably a surprise,” he said.
“It was just amazing, an all round team effort, our pressure from the start was through the roof,
“To think that a side the calibre of North Ballarat only scored one goal to three quarter time is a testament to our boys executing a plan and sticking to the structure.
“The usual suspects stood out yesterday [Saturday], Matthew Brett was clearly best on followed closely by the likes of Brett Bewley, Jacob Zeestraten did a super job on Jamie Quick, I think he might’ve only got one goal in the finish.
“Just an all round team effort and I don’t think we’d fear any of the remaining teams to play them again in two weeks time.”
After another physical contest the Devils will now have the week off to reset, refresh and hit the grand final at full pelt, especially after welcoming some players back from injury.
“You had Mace Cousins who came back and played his first game in about six, seven or eight weeks and he did his piece, kicked three and ended up being the leading goal scorer on the ground,” Shelly said.
“Players like Mace are certainly going to appreciate the week off, in preparation.
“Where we sit at the moment is that the team that thinks they can challenge us and win the flag against us now has to play three games in 13 days to beat us.”
With East Point beating Melton on Sunday, it will play North Ballarat in a preliminary final on Saturday afternoon where the winner will face the Devils at City Oval in Ballarat in the big dance.
