A BRILLIANT final quarter comeback inspired by a legendary spray has booked the Bathurst Giants a spot in their first AFL Central West senior men's grand final.
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The Giants booted six goals in the final term of their preliminary final against the Dubbo Demons at George Park 1 on Saturday as they stormed home for a 10-12-72 to 8-9-57 victory.
Prior to that, it looked as if the Giants would fall one win short of making the decider for the third consecutive year.
With key forward Bevan Charlton-White - who finished the game with five majors - spearheading the Demons' attack, the visitors came from a four-point deficit at the end of the first term to lead by 13 at the long break.
In the third quarter the Demons restricted the Giants to just one major score as they increased that buffer to 21 points.
The momentum was with the Demons, but at the final break came some harsh words from Giants assistant coach Shane Broes that sparked the hosts.
"He absolutely unleashed with one of the best sprays I have heard for a long time. It was fantastic," Giants head coach Mark Kennedy said.
"I know sometimes those things don't work, if they are done all the time on a regular basis, they can roll their eyes with it, but this really lit the guys up.
"Some of the comments after the game were Mum and Dad had a bit of a talk to them at three-quarter-time. Shane came in as Dad, slammed the front door, kicked the cat and then I came in as Mum and said 'Listen guys, this is what we need to work on structurally."
Coming back from that situation against a Demons outfit determined to play in the grand final was something Kennedy knew would be tough.
But he was not without hope.
He knew the fitness of the younger Giants would give them an edge, while his side also had a vocal crowd of supporters located at their attacking end to spur them on.
"That last quarter, we were taking about it before the beginning of the game with Bailey [Brien] as captain and what was going to be strong to finish on," Kennedy said.
"So we decided to, if he won the toss, to run toward our crowd's end. The crowd - I must say - they were fantastic.
"They were all very responsible in keeping 1.5 metres away from each other and they were extremely loud and just lifted the guys.
"In the last quarter we started by kicking two goals from two centre clearances and you could just feel the shift in emotion in the side, they were up and about.
"They had the run of the play for the first three quarters, but we just sort of kept close, kept close, kept close. I knew that we'd have the legs, with the younger guys in the side, to run home, but we set ourselves a big task to try and kick four goals in the last quarter.
"In the end we kicked six - it was nearly a 40-point turn around, it was crazy."
Kennedy shifted the experienced Simon Kay to act as an extra man in defence for that final term.
It was a move which paid off and with eight minutes to go, the Giants hit the front. It was a tense finish after that, but the hosts held on.
"We put an extra man back in defence which stopped their run a little bit because they were dominating with their forwards," Kennedy said
"We sort of sent the message out to try and take some good defensive marks and just maintain possession of the footy and we did that."
The result spelled the end of the Demons' season, while for the Giants it booked a spot in the men's tier one grand final alongside the Bathurst Bushrangers.
For a team that on average conceded 127 points per game in 2016 when first joining the senior men's ranks, it shows just how much progress the Giants have made.
If we get across the line in the grand final who knows? But we're there and anything can happen.
- Mark Kennedy
No longer are the Giants easy-beats. Now they are one win from a premiership.
"It's been a long journey, five years in the making. Some of those games where we were down by 200 points at the end of the day, I was thinking 'Gee is this one of those things that is going to be sustainable?," Kennedy revealed.
"But we just kept concentrating on the fact we had really good juniors coming through and we wanted to be able to put them into a senior team to play for the Giants rather than going anywhere else.
"That was the focus and I think that's paid off for us, we had two preliminary finals the last two years and we just missed out."
The Bushrangers are undefeated this season and will start the grand final as favourites, but Kennedy is remaining optimistic.
"I think we were sitting last on the table five weeks ago, so to turn that around, win four games straight to play in a grand final, I think the momentum is with us," he said.
"If we get across the line in the grand final who knows? But we're there and anything can happen."
