DOGS KEEN TO DO DAMAGE IN FINALS
HAVING ticked off their primary goal for the season – a return to the AFL Cairns finals – Centrals Trinity Beach will up the ante in pursuit of its first finals win since 2016.
The Bulldogs will meet Cairns City Lions in Saturday’s elimination semifinal at Cazalys Stadium.
Centrals player-coach Luke Morgan said making the finals was one thing, but now the side was there, it wanted to do some damage.
“To play footy at the final end is what you’re gunning for and it’s the reason you play footy,” Morgan said.
“There’s three teams that aren’t going to be playing footy this week, but we’re in there, so we give ourselves a chance and we’re going to come out really firing.
“It’s all on the line so we’ll hopefully take our game to the next level and compete really hard to get the reward the boys deserve, which will be a finals win.
“We’ve got great confidence that we’ve been able to improve in the second half of the season.”
The Bulldogs had lost more games than they had won after 10 rounds of the competition and had plenty of work to do to be in the finals mix, but went on to win five of their last six games and finish in third spot on the ladder.
Morgan said it was a nice reward for effort for the club, and they hoped to ride that momentum for at least a couple more weeks.
“The real season starts now and we need to make some damage over the coming weeks,” he said.
Morgan said the Lions were a quality outfit, with former AFL players Aaron Davey, Ashton Hams and Eddie Sansbury on their list.
“If you allow them to play the way they want to play, they can be hard to stop, so we’ve got to be very good and we’ll respect their team,” he said.
The last time the Bulldogs won a final was in 2016, when they defeated Saints in the elimination semi-final, before they were knocked out by Port Douglas the following week.
The Bulldogs finished second on the ladder in 2017, but were
knocked out of the finals in straight sets, losing the qualifying semi-final against Port Douglas, and the following week’s preliminary final against Manunda.
They made the finals in 2018 but were eliminated in the first week again, before they made their return to the finals this season.
The winner of Saturday’s clash will advance to next week’s preliminary final, where they will take on the loser of the qualifying semi-final between Cairns Saints and Port Douglas Crocs for a place in the grand final.