NORTH L’TON 9.19 (73)
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LAUDERDALE 10.10 (70)
NORTH Launceston man-mountain Daniel Roozendaal again showed his value to the team as an elite ruckman and proved his worth as a goalkicker after booting the winning goal for the Northern Bombers in a State League first semi-final thriller against Lauderdale.
In a tough, physical, high-pressure contest highlighted by fierce tackling and pressure on the ball carrier, last year’s Alastair Lynch Medallist put in another best on ground performance to help his side to a three-point victory over a gallant Lauderdale who seriously challenged the reigning premier for the full 120 minutes of what was a great contest.
Roozendaal was moved forward in the final quarter with a spirited Lauderdale side having the momentum and seemingly getting on top of the Bombers and used his strength to pull down an important mark on the point post at the Southern end.
With North trailing by five points, ‘‘Rooza’’ snapped truly around his body from a tight angle to grab the lead back at the 25-minute mark and they held on in the dying minutes for a 9.19 (73) to 10.10 (70) victory.
Inaccurate kicking in the opening quarter when they controlled play but managed only 3.8, nearly came back to haunt the Northern Bombers.
They led by 17 points at quarter time, extended the lead to 22 at the main break and maintained an 18-point buffer at three-quarter time.
In the final quarter North withstood a strong Lauderdale challenge as the Southern Bombers booted four goals to one, including two brilliant goals to exciting young talent Nick Dodge, to hold on for an important victory and book a preliminary final spot against Burnie at Aurora Stadium next Saturday.
‘‘I’m absolutely relieved and really pleased for the group,’’ Northern Bombers coach Zane Littlejohn said.
‘‘I thought we started well and played a really good game of footy against quality opposition but don’t think we got the reward we deserved kicking 9.19 – they say bad kicking is bad football I don’t think we played bad footy.
‘‘We played some pretty good footy especially early in the game when we doubled their inside 50s and just didn’t get the reward but we move on and hope we get the reward next week.
‘‘Rooza is a pretty phenomenal player and actually a good kick of the footy and he is a good man in front of goals and he showed through today.’’
Zach Burt kicked three goals for North and Ethan Petterwood two, with both among their better players.
Logan Reynolds, Geoff Mohr, Corey Nankervis and Jay Foon were good in defence with Brad and Andrew Cox-Goodyer other good players.
Lauderdale coach Darren Winter was disappointed that his team got in front in the last quarter but could not hold on.
‘‘The boys did a good job to get back in the game – we probably chased them a bit in the first quarter but then mixed it up and put a few kids in the middle and let them run and have a bit of fun and pretty much got the game back on our terms,’’ he said.
‘‘We took the game on more after quarter time and after half-time we certainly got the ball going a lot quicker and got them on the hop.’’
‘‘We are very proud of their effort and they are proud young men and we maybe need to get some more mature bodies and heads back in there but they held themselves to account very well today.’’
Ben Halton and Nick Dodge booted three goals each for Lauderdale with Phil Bellchambers and Ben McGuiness their best.