Yarrawonga wins through to grand final with victory over Albury

The match won't make the season's highlights reel as players spoke of a swirling wind having an impact, but it was more the Pigeons' frantic pressure which harassed the Tigers into errors in the 7.14 (56) to 4.15 (39) win in front of another strong crowd of 2217 at Wodonga's John Flower Oval.

"That was the key theme for the week, to bring our contest and if we didn't have the ball to bring elite pressure at the opposition," Yarrawonga coach Steve Johnson revealed.

"We know finals are won in those type of situations, in the first half we were at our absolute best and that's where we set the win up."

Albury made two changes with ex-AFL player George Horlin-Smith unavailable, while Michael Duncan wasn't risked with a hamstring issue.

Murray Bushrangers' Connor O'Sullivan, who was recently rated a top 10 AFL Draft prospect, and Phoenix Gothard were included.

The Tigers will be filthy with their defence in the first four minutes as Mark Whiley and Brayden Coburn were unmarked and kicked the first two goals.

Albury hardly touched the ball in the first eight minutes as the Pigeons ramped up the pressure, but then the Tigers dominated the next 10 with Jake Gaynor and Anthony Miles combining to set up Riley Bice for their only goal of the quarter.

It was an ugly second quarter, but the minor premiers extended their lead to 21 points with the only highlight a classy piece of work by the latter's Nick Fothergill, who marked on the boundary near the point post and ran around on his non-preferred left foot.

Gaynor had racked up 16 touches, while the Pigeons' ex-AFL forward Michael Gibbons had a series of clever touches to clock up 14.

Albury again dominated an extended period of the third term, but for the third successive quarter could manage only one goal, while the Pigeons increased the gap to 27 points.

The crowd's hopes of a desperately needed thrilling finish never eventuated as Albury finished with 1.6 for the stanza, while the favourites didn't register its first score until the 19-minute mark, but still won comfortably.

Wing Logan Morey had an outstanding final term, racing back to take a series of crucial marks, Matt Casey also held a number of strong grabs through the match, underrated Ned Pendergast kept Albury's top forward Jacob Conlan goalless, kicking five behinds, Coburn was the game's leading goalscorer with three, while Morris medallist Leigh Masters and Gibbons showed their class.

An amazing statistic was last year's Doug Strang medallist Leigh Williams failed to have a shot on goal, despite being within distance a number of times, but it was later revealed he was struggling with a haematoma from the final round game against Wodonga, at the same ground ironically, and hadn't attempted a long kick since.

IN THE NEWS:

Bice finished with two goals and at one stage in the first half looked the only Tiger likely to convert, Gaynor was again terrific, young defender Max Byrne produced a handful of superb acts, while Rhys King never stopped working.

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