It was the Melton of old as it dusted off some average performances to start the Ballarat Football League finals with a bang.
The Bloods brought some inconsistent form into finals, but that was behind them as they blew Bacchus Marsh away early in Sunday’s elimination final.
Bloods coach Troy Scoble admits they had been focusing on the bigger picture the last month of the season.
“It had been a tough back end of the year,” he said. “We got into finals preparation about a month ago.
“We were aiming to go into finals well prepared and ready to go.
“They played really well.”
Scoble said the finals experience within the group helped his side against a side playing finals for the first time in a number of years.
He said the footy and pressure is different and so is the length of quarters so it can be a little bit challenging.
Scoble said one of their biggest focuses was putting together a four quarter performance which they hadn’t done for a number of weeks.
He said they were able to do that on Saturday and also make the most of their opportunities in front of goal.
“We’ve been very poor with that this year,” he said. “Last year we were at 64 per cent conversion, this year at 47 per cent which is a big drop off.
“We’ve generated so many scoring shots every week and we’ve done a lot of work on that.”
On Sunday, the Bloods broke the game open in the second quarter.
After leading by four points at quarter time, they kicked eight goals to none in the second quarter with the wind, to lead by 65 points at half time.
The Bloods were able to hold a big margin for the rest of the game, winning 18.10 (118)-8.12 (60).
Scoble said the start to the game was always going to be important.
“It was a very contested game,” he said. “The conditions weren’t great and there were concerns about us playing there.
“It was a poor decision. Both teams had to play in those conditions. Whoever got in front, it was going to be hard to pull anyone back in those conditions.”
Braedan Kight kicked seven goals for the Bloods and was really strong up forward.
Scoble said Kight, Harrison Hanley and Jack Walker all had really good games in a strong team performance.
Jamie Fulton and Josh Huxtable were named best for the Cobras.
The Bloods will now face East Point in a knockout semi final on Sunday.
Scoble said they were looking forward to the challenge.
“We have a great rivalry from recent finals and grand final finals.”
