Terang Mortlake defeats Cobden in HFNL first semi-final

The Bloods face North Warrnambool Eagles on Saturday in a preliminary final after they downed the Bombers 14.8 (92) to 10.10 (70) at Port Fairy.

The side lost the qualifier to the Eagles a week earlier by just one point, with an excited yet relieved Kenna acknowledging his side were much improved against the Bombers.

"You don't really want to play two finals and lose both of them so I think the players played like that today," he told The Standard.

"They're will and want for the contest I thought today probably was above last week and (we) probably made better decisions under pressure I think than last week.

"But I still think we can probably even get better in that regard as well."

The game was a hard-fought contest full of free-flowing attacking football with no shortage of hard hits.

The Bombers trailed by just one-point at half-time, however a four-goal-to-one third term in the Bloods' favour ultimately left them too much to do in the end.

Forward-half inefficiency also hurt the Bombers, with the Bloods able to better capitalise on their chances.

Experienced Bloods Joe Arundell and Gus Bourke were strong in defence while teammates Will Kain (five goals) and Luke McConnell (three goals) were dangerous up forward.

Jack Hammond (two goals) and co-coach Brody Mahoney (two goals) were Cobden's best performers while midfielders Patty Smith (Bombers) and Scott Carlin (Terang Mortlake) saw plenty of the ball.

Kenna described the win as a "solid four-quarter effort" where everyone contributed.

"The back-line was really good," he said.

"I think our players were steady.

"I think a lot of players played their first senior final last week, so I think they were genuinely better for the run from last week and probably just in those moments we were probably able to control the ball a bit better than last week.

"I just thought it was a pretty even team effort really. Everyone had their moments. I thought the whole 22 when they had a moment that was important, they all stood up."

Kenna is excited for the preliminary final, which if the Bloods triumph, will see them progress to their first decider since 2008.

"We'll go across to the beach now and the boys will be all over their recovery in the next 48 hours before we get to Tuesday-night training," he said.

"So we'll have belief. Obviously we only got beat by one point against North so we're going to have belief that if we bring our best effort for four quarters we can win the preliminary final."

Bombers co-coach Dan Casey, who recently announced he was stepping down at the end of the season, conceded his side was made to rue missed opportunities.

"Obviously it's a good effort to get to finals but the boys are disappointed," he said.

'"We had our chances to get back but just probably wasted it going forward.

"But proud of our guys' effort, we had a crack at them and there's definitely no excuses at the end of the day. Terang were just too good in the end."

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