Around the Grounds: Cervantes crush Moora to book grand final as Carnamah Perenjori fend off Mingenew

Cervantes have booked their spot in the Central Midlands Coastal Football League as they crushed Moora in their semifinal on Saturday.

The Tiger Sharks had been in top form winning their last five games in a row including a two-point thriller of Moora which handed the Mavericks their first and only loss of the regular season.

They would suffer a second but by a more significant margin as the Tiger Sharks booted 20 goals in the 20.8 (128) to 4.7 (31) victory.

The game started evenly enough as Cervantes kicked three goals to one though Moora did have more scoring shots but were wasteful in front of goal booting 1.4 to trail by eight points.

But that is as close as they got as they were held scoreless in the second term as Cervantes piled on seven unanswered goals to have the game all but over by half-time.

They did not let up the pressure though kicking another six in the third term to break the hundred-point barrier as the margin extended to more than 80 points.

The Tiger Sharks’ Isaac Devitt-Boyd kicked six in tandem with Mark Le Cras who finished with five, taking his season total up to 33 goals from five games.

Gus Devitt continued his perfect run of best player nominations with his 12th as the Mavericks will have to lick their wounds and recover for their prelim against Dandaragan next week.

Finals action started in the North Midlands Football league as Carnamah Perenjori won out in a final quarter shootout over the Mingenew Bulldogs to book their spot in this season’s decider.

Mingenew had been the form team of the competition for much of the season but a shock loss to Three Springs and a forfeit in their last regular season game made their form difficult to judge coming into the game.

Carnamah were coming off three losses and with other forfeits and had not won a game since July 16.

As fate would have it that last game was against Mingenew and they once again found themselves on the winners’ list despite trailing for the first three quarters.

The Bulldogs grabbed the early lead kicking the opening two goals as the Roos could manage just a single behind in the first quarter.

But they found themselves in the game in the second kicking four goals to two to tail by one point at the main break.

Both sides scored just one major in the third quarter as the pressure was on for the place in the big dance.

After a tense quarter, the goals flowed more freely in the final term as Carnamah Perenjori scored four goals to two to grab an eight-point win.

Clint Chivers was excellent with two goals with support from Andrew Cosgrove, Alistair Dolton, and Jayden Owen.

Kobi Seller led the way for the Bulldogs with two goals as six other players got singles but they fell short and will now face Coorow Latham for a second chance.

The Magpies survived a six-goal charge in the second quarter to kick away and end Morawa’s season 15.13 (103) to 10.10 (70)

Coorow were arguably the form team heading into finals having won their last five games. Morawa came off a close win against Dongara but had lost their last encounter to the Magpies by 49 points.

They were down early as the Tigers managed two goals to Coorow’s four but they kicked six goals in the second to grab the lead at the main break by one point.

Blair Stone (4) and Harry Pickett (3) were leading the way for the Magpies while Henry Little (4) and Keiren Simpson (3) were matching them for Morawa.

But the Tigers could only manage two goals in the second half while the Magpies kicked eight as they found more avenues to goal outside of their spearheads as Laurie Bothe, Matthew Burley, Josh McCall had two goals each.

The Magpies have not faced the Bulldogs since June 18 in what should be an interesting clash next Saturday at Mingenew Town Oval.