Port’s Mitchell Scazzariello was sent off for felling Chris Jackson with this tackle. Picture: DAVE TEASE
FOOTBALL
Brad Boardman did his talking on the pitch, before his father and Dapto Dandaloo coach Norm Boardman was forced to fire a few volleys of his own off it.
Boardman senior leapt to the defence of referee Andrew Naylor after watching son Brad score twice in eight minutes either side of the interval, icing a 2-1 win over Port Kembla yesterday.
The Fury's heated preliminary final victory sets up a grand final showdown with Bulli, but that mattered little to an irate Port coach Stuart Beedie.
Beedie was left fuming after Naylor waved away appeals for a 83rd-minute penalty when Karouna Micheal's shot cannoned into the arm of Shane Lyons from close range.
To compound matters for the black and whites, Mitchell Scazzariello felled Chris Jackson in the subsequent sequence of play and was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Their desperate attempts for an equaliser after that with just 10 men were fruitless.
"It's a handball - just an absolute blatant handball," Beedie fumed. "I just can't understand it. Then we get a player sent off who has had two challenges [all game].
"I can handle getting beat, but some of the circumstances [yesterday] were not right."
But when quizzed on what he thought of the decision, Boardman said: "He's a metre from someone who has volleyed it. It's ball to hand and not hand to ball.
"If you've got your hands by your side and the ball hits you you can't give a penalty for that. Alternatively, Brad was onside in the second half with about five to go and they pulled that [goal] back. It works both ways. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't."
The tug-o-war over the contentious decision detracted from a gritty performance from the under-siege Fury, who were far from their best for large periods at Wetherall Park.
Having avoided an embarrassing back-door finals exit after winning the league, Boardman said his side would find another gear for nemesis Bulli at Crehan Park on Saturday.
"The football wasn't pretty, but at the end of the day the effort was unbelievable and that's all I can ask the boys for before the game," Boardman said. "We've got another shot now and we deserve it.
"We'll be better next week, much better, and we'll prepare for a different opponent."
Denied by an excellent performance from Port shot-stopper David Poeria for much of the first half, Boardman sent the Fury to the sheds in front after latching onto a neat slide-rule pass from Sam Munro.
Port's equaliser took all of 16 seconds after the resumption when Jon Ramos bundled home from close range after stand-in keeper Michael Takacs palmed away Micheal's header.
