RICK DREWER

TANUNDA will play in the 2019 Barossa, Light & Gawler A-grade football grand final after it defeated minor premier Angaston by 21 points in Saturday’s second semi-final.

The match certainly indicated that these are the best two sides in the competition.

Having won the toss and kicking with a strong wind, the Magpies looked anything but convincing for the first 10 minutes, shell-shocked by Jayden Antonie’s goal inside the opening minute and
Andrew Pech and player-coach Jay Shannon looking dangerous for Angaston.

It wasn’t until Lachlan Agars with a nice ball finding Ben Schiller – straight in front, who converted – that Tanunda seemed to steady and settle.

Ryder Eberhard then goaled, momentarily putting the Panthers ahead, before two goals from Josh Trembath and a wonderful snap at goal from Agars saw Tanunda go to the quarter-time break with a 14-point lead.

Shannon expressed some concern, suggesting his Panthers needed “more man to man, we’re not setting up well and there’s not enough forward defensive pressure”.

The reality was that Tanunda out-possessed the Panthers, and its small fleet definitely appeared quicker.

Modern football is all about midfielders and the Pies had the advantage of having a dominant ruckman Angus Kurtze, with his deft touches, allowing the Tanunda on-ballers to have first look at the ball on most occasions, which continued throughout the game.

Jayden Antonie repeated his first term effort in kicking the opening major for Ango, before Josh Trembath also repeated his first term effort by bagging another two for Tanunda.

Pech slotted a lazy four for the quarter, enabling Angaston to get right back into the match and trail by one point at the long break.

Inspired by a great snap on goal from out of the pack by Riley McFarlane, and a lovely lead, mark and conversion from Nathan Petersen-Gray, the Magpies were winning the clearances, looked faster, were cleaner in their ball use, and were applying great pressure on the Panthers.

At the last break and up by 22 points, Pies player-coach Dean Terlich warned his side about getting complacent.

“They will come, start well… show character and back it up for the last quarter,” he said.

It was tough, tight football, with Tanunda showing greater composure.

Leigh Westhoff, Ben Schiller, Agars and Kurtze led the way, while under enormous pressure, Angaston frequently turned the ball over.

Tanunda successfully closed Angaston down, and despite kicking with the breeze it only clawed back the deficit by one point at the final siren, going down by 21 points.

Post-game, Terlich turned his focus to a fortnight’s time at Freeling Oval.

“One to go, we were harder for longer; keep a lid on it, there’s room for growth, really well done and we’re ready to roll,” he said.