Eoin Rosney fired the Raiders to a positive start with a 15th-minute strike, but that was cancelled out by La Trobe’s Josh Naunton 20 minutes later as the sides went into half-time locked at 1-1.
The Raiders came out firing to start the second half, but their momentum was stunted for an unusual reason.
“We dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half and then the upright on the goal broke so they had to stop the game for 10 minutes,” Raiders coach Jonathan Keele said.
“A break can stop the momentum, and that’s what happened.”
Undermanned and running out of legs late in the game, the Raiders couldn’t prevent Seth Bish from converting a goal in the 87th minute, consigning the Raiders to a season-ending 2-1 loss.
“We had our chances to bury it in the first 20 and we just didn’t put it in the back of the net, but overall it was a fantastic game and I was proud of the boys and their attitude towards the game,” Keele said.
“We only had 13 guys, we had three that pulled out on the morning, which put us under a bit of pressure on a hot day with our rotations.
“We still had a very good squad. We went out there knowing that a few of us wouldn’t be there next year and we wanted to have a red-hot crack.
“It was an exceptional season, to step up and have more wins than losses, I think we would have to give it a really good pass. The squad is in a really good position.”
Rosney, Austin Linehan and Rishabh Kothari earned the praise of Keele for their performance.
Keele also announced his three-year stint as senior men’s coach was at an end.
“That’s me done and dusted,” Keele said.
“I’ll never say never but I would like a couple of years’ break. You do get stale and you need another voice, another voice that can give them more inspiration.”
In the junior ranks, the under-16A squad progressed to the preliminary final after a 3-1 win over Swan Hill, while the under-14A Raiders will get a second chance this weekend as well.
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