A BIG win over Gold Coast rivals Burleigh on Saturday has catapaulted Palm Beach-Currumbin into a finals double-chance.
By Terry Wilson
The Lions, who smashed the Bombers by 27.24 (186) to 9.10 (64) at Salk Oval, jumped from fifth to third – on the back of the win by Surfers Paradise against Wilston-Grange – and they now travel to Chelmer Oval on Sunday for the qualifying final against Western Magpies.
Oozing class around the ground, the Lions were classes above the listless Bombers, who were in the contest up to quarter-time when they trailed by 4.1 to 3.2
After leading by only three goals at half-time, PBC kicked 9.8 in the third term, then another 10.8 to complete the rout.
Stand-in coach Darren Beaufoy, who has now won at all four appearances filling in for Craig O’Brien, said the only downer was a ‘flat’ second quarter.
“There were a lot of clangers, as they describe it these days, a lot of turnovers as the breeze kicked up a notch,” he said.
“But the boys started moving it well after that.”
It is obvious the Lions have a midfield equal to that of any of the other finalists and several of them took turns to destroy Burleigh.
Brad Hards was one of them and last year’s Duncanson-Todd Medallist Brad Horn was another.
And regular backmen Chris Williams (four goals at centre half-forward) and Arnold Knight (five goals at full-forward after half-time) indicated the versatility of the Lions.
Adding to the polish were classy half-back flanker Angus Munro and ruckman Michael I’Anson.
The frightening thing about PBC is that they came through the match unscathed and now have to find ways to fit James Drake, Matt Carroll, Damien Lyon and perhaps Lee Clark into the side for the finals campaign.
Burleigh coach Zane Doubleday, who has been reappointed for 2012, left Salk Oval a clearly disappointed man, unable to get his disinterested troops to be at least competitive.
“The way the boys have not been fighting games out … it has been painful to watch and experience,” he said of the Bombers’ downward spiral from 2010 preliminary finalists.
“The only real positive is that we’ve tried some of our kids out in different positions.
“We were in the game for as half but then their midfield ran riot. It was an A grade midfield against a B grade midfield.”
Best for Burleigh were central defender Tim McKay, Marcus Powell in the middle and Zach Tschirn on a half-back flank.
