HOLDING ON: Otamatea's Michael Robinson grips the ball as he is taken down in a tackle during his side's 32-0 semifinal loss to Mid Northern. PHOTOS/TANIA WHYTE
HOLDING ON: Otamatea's Michael Robinson grips the ball as he is taken down in a tackle during his side's 32-0 semifinal loss to Mid Northern. PHOTOS/TANIA WHYTE
After several months of hard work, blood, sweat and the odd teardrop or two being shed, two finalists have emerged after proving themselves worthy enough for this weekend's final at Toll Stadium.
Wellsford and Mid Northern conquered their semifinal opponents in compelling affairs to further complement their impressive runs throughoutthe 2015 Bayleys Southern Districts competition.
Mid Northern hosted an Otamatea squad travelling to Hukerenui with nothing to lose, therefore it was fitting that Otamatea - the losing side after being disposed 32-0 by a rampant Mid Northern - limped away battered and bruised but with their heads held high.
Standing in the middle of the mud-strewn pitch post-match, Mid Northern coach Craig Edwards kept his elation to a minimum despite bursting with excitement inside over his team's win.
"The nerves, [and] butterflies have all gone now - my heart's started beating now," Edwards said. "One more game, we've trained all season to get this far. Me and David Holwell [assistant coach] did a good job, now we need to bring the boys up to finish the job next week."
Gracious in defeat, Otamatea coach Dean Kenny was complimentary of Mid Northern bringing their A-game.
"It was a battle of attrition at the end there. The harder we tried, the more they just threw people in there," he said.
"The boys out there today just gave it everything they had. I told them not to leave anything in the tank and I can honestly say not one of them left anything in the tank."
With the field's soggy conditions leaning in Mid Northern's favour - a pitch which Kenny thought was better suited to growing potatoes - Otamatea never really took their chances to get on top despite grinding out a good contest in the first 30 minutes.
"All credit to Mid Northern, they knew how to play in these conditions a lot better than us - they played to their strengths at that was in their forwards. In the second half they just wanted it a lot more," Kenny said.
At Centennial Park, the second semifinal produced an exciting array of footy from both Mid Western and Wellsford, the latter sneaking away with the win, 39-26. With finals footy, the banks are downtown and a storming first half from Wellsford was just enough for them to cash in their TAB slips for a final showdown versus Mid Northern in this weekend's final.
"The boys are excited - we had a really good first half today [Saturday] and got up on the board but it's a game of two halves and they [Mid Western] had a lot of ball in the second half and had a good comeback," Wellsford coach Ross Neal said. "[With] finals footy, it's always going to be an 80-minute game so we managed to scrape through - I'm really proud of the boys."
Coasting their way home after a few post-match ales, Mid Western coach Danny Woodcock and his resurgent team of players remained upbeat after their tight loss.
"Wellsford played really well [in the] first 40 [minutes]. We chased it [but] couldn't bridge the gap," Woodcock said.
"We had a really good second half and scored 26 points but it was just too big of a gap. It's finals, you have your chances - we just left it too late."
