Road to the Premiership Begins
24 Aug, 2012
THE road to the premiership is now officially under way with grades B and below beginning their finals campaign this weekend.
After 18 rounds of the home and away season completed, only four matches stand between the competing 42 clubs and Premiership success.
For Fremantle CBC, who finished in second place in B Grade, the first of those potential four matches comes against third placed Kalamunda in the Qualifying Final at Morris Buzzacott Reserve this Saturday.
A spot in the top three seemed like destiny for CBC, never going lower than second spot after round 2, but Kalamunda only managed to clinch third in the back end of the season after finishing with six wins in a row.
In contrast, CBC come into finals in perhaps their worst form, losing two out of the past four matches including a 26-point loss to Wembley in the last round of the season.
While the winner of that match advances straight through to play minor premiers Wesley Curtin in the second Semi Final, the loser faces a do-or-die match against the winner of the Elimination Final between Wembley and Scarborough.
Finishing just one win below Kalamunda and CBC on 48 points, Wembley head into the B Grade finals series confident they could add another Premiership to its tally of 40 plus. Scarborough too know how to perform at the business end of the season having won 18 premierships themselves, including last seasons’ C1 flag.
Looking to follow on from Scarborough and earn promotion from C1 to B Grade in 2011 are High Wycombe and Melville who meet in the Qualifying Final at Scott Reserve this Saturday.
High Wycombe, despite finishing in second place on percentage behind Bullcreek Leeming, are arguably the form side of the competition and have strung together a remarkable 11 wins in a row to storm into the finals.
Amongst those wins was a 12-point victory over the minor premiers in Round 16 and a 10-point win over their finals opponents Melville in round 13.
Melville have also been in fantastic form at the right time of the year and have won nine out of their past 11 matches, proving that they are a genuine danger side for anyone in the top five.
The other C1 match pits fourth placed Ocean Ridge against fifth placed Wanneroo in an Elimination Final at Heathridge Park.
A spot in the final five is an outstanding achievement for Ocean Ridge who are in their first season in C1 after losing the C2 Grand Final in 2011, but the club won’t be content with making up the numbers in finals.
While Ocean Ridge will be favourites on the day, Wanneroo have won their past four games in a row to take their best form of the year into the finals. Amongst those wins was an impressive 79-point demolition of Qualifying Finalists Melville, at Melville, showing they are capable of going all the way at their best.
Bounce down for all league games is at 2:30pm, following reserves at 12:35pm and Colts at 10:45am, with full fixtures and results on the WAAFL website.
