Gulls twos tame Eagles
by Nicholas Duck
Warragul's reserves have kept their 2026 campaign alive courtesy of a comfortable 35-point win over Maffra in Sunday's elimination final.
The Gulls made their intent known early, locking the ball in their forward half and refusing to give an inch as they built a lead.
While Maffra made a brief fight in the second, from there on Warragul proved themselves the better of the black and red teams, winning the ball at the contest and running away 13.14 (92) to 8.9 (57) winners.
Veteran Matt Gray wound back the clock, taking his demotion from the seniors on the chin and taking the mickey in the ruck, giving his midfielders silver service while winning a fair share of clearance off his own boot to earn best on ground honours.
Gray's work gave his teammates ascendancy at the contest and the territory battle, allowing the Gulls to avenge their loss to Maffra just a few weeks ago.
Patrick Carpenter played one of his most composed games with ball in hand, consistenly making the right calls to keep Warragul on the attack.
The move to leave senior regular Zac Stewart one out in the goal square proved a winner, Stewart kicking two goals and providing the Maffra defenders a plethora of headaches.
Young up and comers Harry Hodge, Tom Logan and Will Brewer all played their parts in what was the best performance from Warragul's twos all season.
Fighting hard for Maffra was Luke Dyer in the middle, as well as Harry Stables, Thomas Schacht, Sebastian Pendergast, Ryan Phelan and Lachlan Allman.
The Eagles let their frustrations show at times, exemplified by Phelan throwing his mouth guard at the ground in anger as the Gulls streamed away in the third quarter.
By and large they couldn't get the ball forward enough to really challenge.
It took them more than 15 minutes to register a meaningful inside 50, by which time Logan and Cameron Thompson (four goals) had struck truly.
A spilled mark allowed Jye Brickley to get the Eagles on the board shortly before quarter time, and it seemed to ruffle some feathers on Warragul's side of things.
Ill discipline crept into the game, both teams giving away multiple 50-metre penalties thanks to the umpires being hot on any kind of back chat.
Maffra got within a kick to send some worry through the Warragul bench, but as quick as you like the Gulls responded, Thompson benefitting from another 50 before Stewart kicked two goals in as many minutes.
Maffra endured a moment of embarrassment at half time when one of their players got a free kick within range just before the siren. Evidently the player didn't realise, attempting a pass and ending the half.
The 50-metre penalties continued to rain down in the third, allowing Gray and Leighton to score, and though Maffra had their moments, a couple of quick majors to begin the fourth ensured the Gulls would be marching on to play Moe this Sunday at Leongatha.
It's going to take a special effort if they want to win – but funnier things have happened in footy.
