NEW England Nomads will host the grand final after beating Tamworth Kangaroos by 82 points on Saturday.
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The Nomads kicked 15.19.104 to easily account for the Kangaroos, 3.4.22.
“It’s very pleasing, particularly the second half,” Nomads coach, Jed Ellis-Cluff, said after the match where his team piled on nine goals to one after half-time.
“It was a scrappy game, that’s finals footy, they’re a good team and I think that’s their aim, to cut down our skills, and they did that well.
“But we stuck to our structures and kept working hard and we started to get the results on the board.”
Dominant forward Zac Economou kicked five goals for the Nomads.
“He just gets it done week in, week out, and It’s really reassuring to know you have a bloke up front like that you can bank on to get five goals a game.”
It was a scrappy first quarter, with the Nomads missing opportunities and the Kangaroos failing to capitalise on their own ball use.
It was a scrappy game. That's finals footy.
- Jed Ellis-Cluff
Wulu Hall kicked the first goal of the game, then Economou kicked his first before the Tamworth side got on the scoreboard.
That came courtesy of Daniel Leon who pounced on the ball in the goal square after it had sailed over the pack.
At quarter time the Kangaroos moved players around to try and get more drive through the midfield, which helped them compete with their more skilled opponents.
But some inaccurate kicking dogged the Nomads, who had a scoreline of 3.8 early in the second quarter after Ellis-Cluff missed a difficult shot from near the boundary line.
When the Tamworth side kicked its its second goal of the match soon after they were still within reach of the undefeated Nomads with a margin of just 14 points.
But two quick goals, and another before half-time, saw the Nomads go into the main break with a 33 point lead.
From there the home team turned it on in the third quarter with goals to Clarence Barker, Thomas Lashlie and another Economou.
When Matthew Foley kicked truly late in the quarter, the Nomads’ lead had extended to almost 10 goals.
Despite an early goal to Tamworth early in the last quarter via Daniel Ray, the Nomads pressure was relentless.
And Ellis-Cluff showed some impressive contested marking skills in the forward line which resulted in a goal after some earlier misses.
The undefeated team now look forward to another grand final, but Ellis-Cluff said his team was cautious of not being complacent depsite their unbeaten season.
“We speak about it a fair bit, it doesn’t matter how many you have won or lost once you get to finals, they count for nothing.
“We took that philosophy into today and we’ll take it into the grand final.”
Among Tamworth’s best players were Ryan Searl, Daniel Ray, Brock Quinn and Ben Mitchell. Coach Tony Bishop was disappointed, saying his team – which was missing Gillies Medalist Matt Hodge - just wasn’t up to it on the day.
Meanwhile, the Nomads have two players - Harry Freund and small forward Harry Wakefield - who missed Saturday’s victory to come back into the team, which Ellis-Cluff said was a good problem to have after they got through the weekend without any injuries.