Carey Park won their eighth game in a row, to march into the 2025 Dale Alcock Homes South West finals series, after defeating the Collie Eagles on Saturday afternoon at the Collie Recreation Ground.
The Panthers needed to win and win well to solidify third spot on the ladder, and to boost their percentage to keep Bunbury in fourth, who play Eaton on Sunday.
Carey Park started in the best possible manner, leading by 28 points at quarter time, and then extended the margin to 43 points at half time. The Panthers percentage was starting to soar, but Collie rallied in the second half, kicking seven goals and at one point in the final term got within 20 points before the Panthers kicked the final four goals of the game.
Jackson Hill and Brady Lenaghan kicked eight goals between them, while Jayce Fontana was a good contributor for Collie, kicking three goals.
The Eagles weren’t able to replicate their stirring win over Donnybrook, but their second half reduced the Panthers growing percentage, finishing with 131.55, and increase of just 2.85 on the day. Carey Park are now 3.36 percent ahead of Bunbury, who will need to win by a similar margin on Sunday against Eaton, to move back into third place. The Eagles will finish the season with four wins, and are currently eighth, but could drop as low as tenth dependant on other results on Sunday.
SCOREBOARD
Carey Park 5.4.34 8.8.56 11.9.75 16.13.109
Collie Eagles 1.0.6 2.1.13 5.4.34 9.7.61
Goals: Carey Park – Jackson Hill 4, Brady Lenaghan 4, Nic Le Roux 2, Rory O’Brien 2, Sheldon Pickett 2, Brian Hughes 1, Kelvin Lawrence 1. Collie Eagles – Jayce Fontana 3, Matthew Burton 1, Jack Davidson 1, Teale DeAngelis 1, Austin Kent 1, Liam Reuben 1, Paul Rinder 1.
Best: Carey Park – Enrique Aiken-Featherstone, Connor Gadecki, Jack DiLallo, Brady Lenaghan, Jamie Meade, Nicholaas Le Roux. Collie Eagles – Luke English, Teale De’Angelis, Zac Pilatti, Joshua Elliott, Corey Holmes, Jayce Fontana
Ground: Collie Recreation Ground
Umpires: Michael Hearne, Toby Potter
Crowd: TBA