Threepeat dream still alive for Tigers
HERMIT Park Tigers coach Brett Hughes has paid tribute to the club’s resilience after the two-time reigning premiers secured their place in the AFL Townsville grand final.
The Tigers proved too strong for the Thuringowa Bulldogs in Saturday’s semifinal at Riverway Stadium, running out 13.12 (90) to 6.8 (44) winners as captain Jason Di Betta kicked three goals.
Hermit Park endured a heartbreaking start to the season when their home ground at Neil French Oval was inundated in February’s floods, but they now have a chance to become the first club since 2005 to win three consecutive flags.
The Tigers have also qualified for the reserve grade and women’s deciders along with their under-17 and under-15 teams while the under-13s will play in this weekend’s preliminary final.
“It’s been a long year, but I can’t speak highly enough of the resilience that these blokes have had,” Hughes said.
“They’ve had a lot of their mates go down with some pretty serious injuries throughout the year as well and they just keep fronting up and they’re hungry to keep winning so it’s good.”
The Tigers jumped out to a 3.1 (19) to 0.1 (1) quarter-time time and they never looked back as Hughes praised the efforts of Di Betta, Callaway Parker and Nickolas Pronk to keep the Bulldogs under pressure. “Our boys certainly turned up with a good plan and a good execution of it,” the coach said.
“It was our pressure really, it all stemmed from that. We didn’t allow the Bulldogs to have much time and space at all so it really meant the game could be played on our terms a little bit more.”
Thuringowa will now take on Curra in this weekend’s preliminary final after the Swans held out the University Hawks 8.13 (61) to 7.10 (52) in yesterday’s nailbiting elimination semi-final. The Tigers have the week off before the grand final, but Hughes insisted it would be business as usual for his side as they chase a piece of history with a ‘threepeat’.
“You don’t get the opportunity to do that very often. It’s hard enough to win one so I’m sure our blokes are mindful of it,” he said.
“It’s probably good for the guys to have a week’s rest as well and go and watch the opposition and see who we’re going to play against.”