Mid Gippsland FL 1st and 2nd Semi Finals preview

2ND SEMI FINAL PREVIEW – TRAFALGAR V YINNAR

It’s the match up that many predict will also take place in the MGFL grand final.

Trafalgar have been outstanding in season 2018, seventeen wins from the eighteen rounds of the home and away season is testimony to that, but the fact is, it actually counts for nothing at this time of the year.

The Bloods work ethic, commitment to game plan, team understanding and discipline is hard to fault, and has been rewarded many times with success in close games that may have gone either way.

By contrast, Yinnar have limped through a majority of the year, with players injured or unavailable due to work, holiday or even weddings.

Importantly the talented Magpies team has started to take some shape over the past month and the results have predictably followed, last weeks win over Yallourn-Yallourn North confirmation that they are going to be a force to be reckoned with.

In fact there are many similarities in the contrasting styles of these two sides, especially around discipline, personal sacrifices for team benefit, composure under pressure and ball movement.

Trafalgar have many avenues to goal and therefore defending predictable movement forward can be difficult, equally their demanding zone pressure can force even the most experienced players to turn the ball over.

Yinnar coach Jaimie Aitken, will be controlling the side from defence and reinforcing the need to be settled with the ball forward of centre.

Like Trafalgar, they too have many options to goal, all of whom will provide headaches throughout the day on quite possibly the best surface in the league if delivery to them is as good as it should be given the predicted conditions.

It’s a game that could go either way, but as so many have when it been tight Trafalgar, seem to be able to find a way to win, and its hard to see this week being any different.

1ST SEMI FINAL MATCH PREVIEW – YALLOURN-YALLOURN NORTH V MIRBOO NORTH

Its always an intriguing scenario when you have one team rated above another but meeting it on the back of losing a match, compared to the lower rated team coming of an impressive win.

The Bombers loss to Yinnar wasn’t a total shock, but what it might have done is ignite some of the doubts that have harboured in players heads since being bustled out of the finals in straight sets after finishing top during 2017.

Mirboo North, on the other hand would be buoyed by their forty three point win over Thorpdale in the elimination final, and may just be the impetus they needed to believe they could actually go back to back after coming from a similar position just twelve months ago.

In round nine this year, it was Mirboo North that claimed the points with a five point win before the Bombers made light work of the Tigers when they met in the last game of the home and away season just a fortnight ago.

Importantly, the most impressive win of the season for Yallourn-Yallourn North was against Trafalgar, the top sides only loss of the year.

On that day, the big ground gave the visitors the space they needed to slice through the zone of the home side again and again, cruising to the most impressive of wins. That victory by the Bombers was also at the ground on which they meet Mirboo North this week in the 1^st semi final.

The open spaces of Trafalgar may be just what brings the Tigers to their knees this week, with the predicted perfect conditions ideal for the pace and skill of Yallourn.

Make no mistake, there were signs that Mirboo are on the march, in their win over Thorpdale in the elimination final last week.

The muddy heavy conditions demanded direct football, and that’s what the Tigers did, and they did it well too, going long to Tim Trail and Zac Kilgower with plenty of feeders at the feet of the two, but what caught the eye the most was the run from the back half.

It promises to be a match to remember, but one the loser will want to forget.