It was a philosophy that Zane Littlejohn and his Bombers adhered to in an almost perfect fashion as they shut out Burnie 7.11 (53) to 5.7 (37) in their qualifying final at West Park.

With the aid of a howling wind and a seven-point lead at the long break, the odds were with the Dockers heading into the third term to open up a lead that could give them some comfort at the last change.

The odds were wrong. The Bombers kept the Dockers goalless for the term, tied things up at three quarter-time and then used the breeze to help eek out a 16-point win.

“We changed our plan a little bit at half-time about how we wanted to play going into that breeze,’’ Littlejohn said post-game.

“Full credit to our playing group for buying into that, as it is all well and good to have a plan, but if you need 22 to buy into it. Quite often in those conditions you can drop a spare behind the ball and we decided we didn’t want to do that, we wanted to win the footy at the coalface first.’’

The fact his players could be so adaptable on the run, was the most pleasing aspect for the coach, as they continued their strong recent record in Burnie.

The Dockers had the wind in the first and led by 21 points at the first change and when Rudy Barrett rolled home their fifth about 10 minutes into the second it was 27.

But Burnie would fail kick a major for the remainder of the contest, as long range goals from Mark Walsh, Stephen Witkowski and Brad Cox-Goodyer got the Bombers back in the game. Walsh and Lochlan Young sealed it in the last.  Alex Lee, Jay Lockhart, Tarryn Thomas and Dakota Bannister were strong.

Thomas was involved in an incident with Zane Murphy in the third which saw the Docker reported for rough conduct and Thomas helped from the ground dazed, but he returned in the final term. Tom Mitchell was also put in the book for striking Jake Pearce.

Nick Walters, Nick McKenna and Kade Munday tried hard for the Dockers, while Kallum Kubicki kicked two.

The Bombers now face Glenorchy at Bellerive Oval in their semi-final, while Burnie will host Lauderdale in the other semi. Full details will be released Sunday.