Efficient performance sees Deanmill Hawks down Manjimup Tigers in semi final

The semifinal match between the Deanmill Hawks and Manjimup Tigers in the Lower South West Football League reserves division ended with Deanmill winning by a sizeable margin over the Tigers, 13.10 (88) to 6.8 (44). The game could not have started off in a better fashion for Deanmill who were all over the Tigers from the outset. Playing in front of their home crowd must have spurred them on to play harder. The Hawks managed to keep the Tigers scoreless at quarter-time while kicking a couple of goals themselves. The quarter ended with Deanmill leading the Tigers 2.6 (18) to 0.0 (0). The dire performance during the first period must have roared the Tigers into life because the second-quarter saw a great effort from the travelling team to pull themselves back into the game. Far more pressure was being exerted by the Manjimup players on Deanmill’s danger men, namely Braden Gibellini, Brent Nicol and Bailey Pollard to try to turn the game around. The second-quarter saw the Tiger’s best performance as a team as they narrowed the margin and stopped the Hawks running away with the game. As the half-time siren blew the scoreboard read Deanmill 5.6 (36) to Manjimup Tigers 4.4 (28). However, any notion of a comeback was dashed shortly after the teams resumed playing in the third-quarter as the Hawks dominated the ruck, forcing the Tigers backline to come out and fight for the ball in midfield. This left big spaces in behind Tigers defenders which Hawks forward Brendan Davis was more than happy to exploit, kicking five goals over the course of the day. Not only were Deanmill’s forwards on target more often than not, but their backline were equally as efficient by breaking down any attacks the Tigers tried to mount. The last period of the match was one-way traffic as Deanmill kicked a further three goals to blow the winning margin out to 44 points. The Deanmill Hawks will now wait to see who wins the second semifinal between Bridgetown and Boyup Brook before discovering who they will play in a preliminary final on September 5.