LAVINGTON spearhead Adam Prior has claimed his fourth Doug Strang Medal.
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Prior won the league’s goalkicking award after booting six in Saturday’s 86-point win at Wodonga for a season tally of 66.
He took a five-goal lead into the final round from Albury spearhead Setanta O’hAilpin.
But O’hAilpin could manage only one goal as Albury was upset by Wangaratta Rovers by 16 points at the W.J. Findlay Oval to finish 10 goals behind Prior.
Wodonga Raiders goalsneak Ross Tungatalum was third on 52 goals.
Panthers coach James Saker refused to say the game was a dead-rubber for his side.
“Oh it meant a lot to us,” Saker said.
“We wanted to work on a few different things, with a view point to Raiders and whatever happens after that.”
Lavington now enters next Saturday’s qualifying final with Wodonga Raiders at Bunton Park full of confidence after its 15th win from 18 games.
Lavington midfielder Matt Sharp was a late withdrawal with an ankle injury, with his replacement Myles Aalbers impressive.
Sharp and Tom Hargreave (arm) are both expected to return next week.
While Saker wants an easier passage into the grand final with victory over the Raiders – the winner will play Albury in the grand final qualifier - he said it wasn’t the end of the world if the Panthers lost next week.
Lavington lost last year’s qualifying final to Yarrawonga before making the preliminary final, which it also lost to the Pigeons.
“We’ve probably proven that winning the qualifying final is not critical,” Saker said.
Wodonga finishes the season sixth with a 6-12 win/loss record, but coach Dean Harding knows the Dogs aren’t far away from finals.
“We promoted nine under-18 kids out of our group who had a taste of senior footy,” Harding said.
“But we are realistic, we know we are still a mile off.
“But we think we’ve closed the gap a little bit.”
Wodonga started with a bang to lead by two points at quarter time, but the Panthers booted 6.2 to 1.1 in the second term.
Josh and Jake Hicks flew the flag for Wodonga, while John Pratt was handy across half back.
But the Panthers had all the answers, with Sam Harris, Matt Pendergast and Luke Garland outstanding in the second half.
Wodonga’s winning chances received a huge blow before the game, with much-improved ruckman Matt Seiter a late withdrawal.
“We were still hoping to get him across the line about 10.30 this morning,” Harding said.
“He’s one of those guys who wants to give everything, every week, but he finally ran out of tickets this morning.”
