THERE will be a profound green and gold element about the QFA Division 1 Hart Sport Cup Grand Final day this weekend after Maroochydore qualified three teams for premiership deciders at Leyshon Park.
Already with their colts and reserves in grand finals this Saturday, the Roos seniors joined them after a dazzling fourth term carried them to victory against fellow Sunshine Coast club Caloundra in the Preliminary Final at the Maroochydore Multi-sports Complex last weekend.
After three even quarters and ahead by only seven points at three-quarter time, Maroochydore roared into action and blitzed the Panthers on the way to victory by 19.12 (126) to 10.6 (66).
Maroochydore led by four goals at quarter-time and by 23 points at the big break before a Caloundra fightback pushed them to within seven points at three-quarter time.
But that was when the Roos fired up and a brilliant fourth term of 9.2 to three behinds from the Panthers sealed an impressive win.
That effort came after Noosa surprised them in the Second Semi-Final with victory by 132-121 in a high-scoring derby.
Coach Andrew Cadzow, chasing back-to-back titles in his second season with Maroochydore, put the Noosa loss down to some of his players getting too many easy games in the run to the finals.
That was on top of losing four of his key players – Sam McKenzie, Mitch Mallinder, Josh Filo and Ben Cadzow during the clash against the Tigers. All four should be back to tackle Noosa again this weekend.
“I thought that in our lead-in to the Noosa match we were underdone because of a number of easy matches,” Andrew Cadzow said.
“Basically, against Noosa it was all over in the first half, but we fixed up a couple of little things for Caloundra.”
Also helping last weekend were the returns of key forward Jarrod Gale and ruckman Cody Thorp.
Mitchell Scholard and Josh Norman both kicked five goals for the Roos against Caloundra while best were Greg Stirton at centre half-back, small forward Noah Cumberland, only 17 and in his second seniors game, Jackson Ryan in the middle and Jason Kennedy at full-back.
Ryan has hit form at the right time after being forced out of the 2017 Grand Final because of a bad knee injury.
For Caloundra, Lachlan Robinson kicked three goals and was best, along with Andrew Saddler, Trent Flanders and Josh Nanninga.
Noosa and Maroochydore will also clash in the reserve grade grand final after the Roos smashed Coorparoo by 19.11 (125) to 3.5 (23) in last weekend’s Preliminary Final.
So dominant were the Roos, that Coorparoo did not kick a goal until the third term.
Completing the hat-trick of Maroochydore teams in the Grand Finals is their colts, who will tackle Southport in the Colts Maroon decider.
Southport won the minor premiership ahead of the Roos but lost the Second Semi-Final to the Roos by 50 points.
However, the Gold Coast club bounced back with a 9.11 (65) to 5.6 (36) victory over Noosa in the Preliminary Final last weekend to deprive Sunshine Coast clubs a clean sweep of Grand Final teams.
