Preliminary Final
Weston Bears FC 0-2 Lambton Jaffas FC
Lambton Jaffas coach David Tanchevski says he breathed a sigh of relief at full-time on Sunday after his players kept their heads and secured a 2-0 victory over Weston Bears at Rockwell Automation Park.
The contest was explosive from start to finish after the Jaffas struck early and the Bears attempted desperately to find an equaliser before Lambton hit again with a late goal to seal the victory.
It was Matt Cahill who opened the scoring in the fifth minute as he scored his third goal in two consecutive starts.
His attacking partner Archie Finn created the chance when he dispossessed Mana Iwasaki just outside the 18-yard box before Cahill curled a first-time strike into the bottom-right corner past a diving Gerard Roebuck.
The Jaffas entered the half-time break leading 1-0 before the Bears came out firing and had the visitors on the ropes early, but they were unable to find the equalising goal.
Jaffas shot-stopper Ben Kennedy made several key saves to keep his side in it, and centre-back duo Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Riley McNaughton were superb in helping hold the Bears out.
Roebuck had to make a few crucial saves of his own to keep the Bears in it late in the contest, but there was nothing he could do in the 88th minute when Sam Donnellan curled in a corner from the left that Carter Smith met with a classy header to make the score 2-0.
The Jaffas had all but booked their ticket to the grand final as they led 2-0 in the 96th minute of the preliminary final when Weston midfielder and one of the player-of-the-year candidates Burke Fahling launched himself into the legs of Lachlan Griffiths with a lunging tackle after the Jaffa had beaten him down the right edge and looked set to charge away towards goal.
Jaffas players ran from all across the park to remonstrate with the Bear as the referee pulled out a red card to give him his marching orders, and Tanchevski was thankful none of his players got physical and ended up getting themselves suspended for Sunday’s grand final.
For Tanchevski, the performance wasn’t as dominant as he would have liked, but he commended his side’s defensive resolve.
“It was a real arm wrestle and an entertaining game. From a neutral it would have been exciting, but from a coach’s point of view it wasn’t,” Tanchevski said.
“It was not as straight-forward as what we would have wanted. It was a tough game, which is how finals football usually is.
“I thought we were on top early until we got the goal, then we probably went into our shell a little bit defending the lead.
“Weston had the better of the second part of the first half, then in the second half we were defending in big periods, and they were coming at us in big periods, and we were trying to defend what we had I think, rather than still playing forward.
“We still created opportunities though.
“It was one of those finals games. We would have liked to assert more domination and have bigger chunks of possession, but in these sorts of games, there are tensions and stresses to deal with, and the boys handled those really well.
“I thought our guys were really good defensively. We talked about it at half-time, we were 1-0 up in a finals game and we knew at some point they were going to throw everything at us.
“That ended up happening, but we defended really strongly, even though we probably gave them two clear-cut chances that we shouldn’t have.”
Tanchevski thought Fahling’s tackle on Griffiths was uncharacteristic of the Weston midfielder but was still furious with the challenge after the match.
“It’s one of the poorest things I’ve seen in football, live. I thought it was atrocious,” Tanchevski said.
“It was a complete brain snap and something you don’t expect to see at this level of football.
“There was nothing but intention to hurt him; no attempt to win the ball whatsoever. It could have put Lachie out of the grand final or broken his leg. Thankfully he didn’t come away with an injury.
“You could see the way (Fahling) ran away after it that he knew he did the wrong thing. Thankfully our guys kept their heads.
“To be fair though, I don’t think he’s been a dirty player at all during the season. You can only put it down to a brain snap.”
For Weston’s football manager Darren Rockley, the tackle was out of character for a player he said had made a positive impact at the club during the 2025 campaign.
“It was very, very uncharacteristic,” Rockley said.
“The tackle wasn’t great. It’s not what Weston are about and we don’t condone that sort of stuff.
“Burke was really disappointed with himself. It’s certainly not in his nature. No chance is that what he’s about.
“I have no doubt he’ll regret that for a long time.”
Lambton have now turned their attention to this Sunday’s grand final. They will travel to Darling Street Oval to challenge premiers Broadmeadow Magic for the championship at 2pm.
In reserve grade the grand final will take place between Maitland FC and Cooks Hill United at 11am.
