The Batemans Bay Seahawks' premiership defence remains alive and well after a 27-point semi-final win over the Woden Blues at Hanging Rock Oval on Sunday, August 18.
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Veteran forward Shaun Green kicked six goals in the win, which gives the Seahawks another shot at the ADFA Rams in next weekend's preliminary final.
The slow start that had hurt the Seahawks in recent times was nowhere to be found on Sunday, as they raced to a 13-point lead on the back of Mick Kenny's goal after the siren.
The match slowed in the second quarter, with both teams only able to add one goal to their tally. Batemans Bay led 5.5 (35) to 3.2 (20) at the long break.
Woden kicked the first goal after half-time, but Batemans Bay showed its mettle with four straight goals to build a match-winning 33-point lead at the final change.
The match opened up in the final quarter, but the Seahawks kept the Blues at bay to record a 14.7 (91) to 10.4 (64) victory.
Coach Kenny said his side fed off a bumper Hanging Rock Oval crowd.
"We tried to soak it all in today," he said. "We got down here nice and early to watch the girls, and we knew it would be a pretty special day for our club when the cars started piling in.
"When we got the first couple of goals, we tried to use that to get the crowd behind us and build momentum.
"There were patches where they pegged us back, but I thought we were pretty resilient and fought back pretty hard.
"Footy is a momentum game, but I thought we did a really good job at stopping them stringing goals together. The senior guys really took control in the second half."
Kenny said the club worked hard on getting good starts to each half.
"We had a great build up this week," he said. "We've got proven guys in our side who have played really big games of footy, and 16 of our guys played in last year's premiership side, so we know how to perform on big occasions.
"We tried not to put too much pressure on the younger guys, and I thought they were all really good today.
"Mainly we didn't want to let anybody down. Both Sam Millynn and myself have let the group know that we won't be coaching or captaining next year, so this was our last hurrah at Hanging Rock. The boys didn't let us down."
Kenny said both ends of the ground would be important in next weekend's game against ADFA.
"Greeny (Shaun Green) was fantastic today," he said. "There's no one in the competition that can match him one on one.
"He's a former league medalist and an extremely smart footballer, so we knew he was going to step up for us today.
"Ross (Hummel) has had a different role for us this year. We've given Greeny the 50 to himself, so Ross has played more up on a wing.
"He's been playing really well, he just hasn't been getting the results on the scoreboard.
"The back six have been really good this year as well. We've looked a much better side since we put Nathan Blackburn back there.
"They've always been pretty solid in one-on-one contests, but the young guys are giving us a lot of drive from that back half."
Kenny said the side wasn't ready for their premiership defence to end.
"We had a really good meeting after our last loss to ADFA about what we did wrong, and I don't think we were too far off the mark," he said. "There were just a couple of things that went wrong structurally, and we didn't have Shaun Green or Sam Millynn, so we lacked a bit of experience.
"We're pretty confident that we'll play ADFA tough next week."
Batemans Bay 14.7 (91) (Goals: S Green 6, B Van Dyk 3, M Kenny, R Hummel, M Thane, K O'Malley, N Blackburn; Best: S Green, K O'Malley, R Lee, N Blackburn, L White) def. Woden 10.4 (64) (Goals: M Stevens 5, B Ayre 2, B Watts, B Ward, K Lal; Best: D Bevan, B Ayre, D Ionko, M Stevens, T Ashton).