BIG Henty forward Roy Jaques kicked the final two goals of the match to steer the Swampies to a thrilling 14-point win over Lockhart at Lockhart on Saturday.
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With the Demons closing to a point with 10 minutes remaining, Jaques marked and goaled twice in the dying stages to stitch up the double chance in the Hume league finals.
Swampie coach Josh Gaynor said he was proud of the way his players responded when challenged.
“Lockhart had the wind in the last quarter and came at us really hard,” Gaynor said.
“Most of the game was played at the Wagga end of the ground and thankfully Roy kicked a couple of late ones.
“Finishing in the top two is huge in terms of how the Hume league is structured but we realise it’s only our starting point.
“We have had to work hard to earn it.”
Henty kicked the only three goals of the match at the Albury end of the ground in a statistic that proved telling.
Beau Connell played well at full-back while Harrison Macreadie and Jim Ellis provided good run and carry from defence.
Shannon Terlich was prominent early in attack while Jared Farwell and Heath Ohlin also performed well.
“I got a text from someone at the club on Saturday night and they said Lockhart had been a bit of a graveyard for us over the years,” Gaynor said.
“It was always going to be a really hard game.”
Henty raced to a 31-point lead at the first change but the margin was pegged back to three points at half-time.
Big Zac Seather led the Demon revival in the ruck while Tom Alexander and Shannon Williams also won plenty of touches.
Henty was forced to ruck Ryan Quade after Michael Aitchison withdrew from the side due to a hamstring injury.
The Swampies will meet Brocklesby-Burrumbuttock in the second week of the finals.
CDHBU forward Luke Cowan sounded an ominous warning on the eve of the finals by starring in his team’s 42-point win over Rand-Walbundrie at Coreen.
Cowan kicked five majors with Tim Cooper and Andrew Ollington ensuring he saw plenty of the ball.
The Tigers were best served by Brian Lieschke and Tim Gray.
Osborne defeated Billabong Crows by 119 points with Trent Perczyk kicking eight majors.
Matt Clarke, Jamie Parr and Matt Klemke also caused nightmares for the Crows.
Jindera recovered from a slow start to defeat Walla by 19 points.
The Hoppers jumped out of the blocks through Jarryd Weeding and Chris Lieschke but lacked the support to match Jindera’s Isaac Pound and Michael Blomeley.
