They have won three premierships in a row but on Saturday their chances for a fourth was dashed after losing by a mere six points against Rovers. 

Tiger had pushed hard in the final quarter to seek a comeback and lessened the margin. The final result was 7.8 (50) to Rovers 8.8 (56). 

Rovers are in for a shot at playing against Lake Nash in the grand final, but first have to overcome the Buffs on Saturday. 

The Nashies earned the grand final position after beating the minor premiership winner, the Buffs, by 23 points on the weekend. The winner of the first game, Rovers, now take on the second game’s loser for the right to play against Lake Nash. 

When Rovers coach Rick Bailey was interviewed shortly following their win against Tigers, it was unclear who they would play if they reached the grand final. He had hoped it was against Lake Nash. 

“I don’t think it matters but I think I would prefer to play Lake Nash. It’s a game we wanted to play last year. So if we can play against them in the grand final that would be good.” 

Bailey said that the reason the Rovers won was that everyone contributed. 

“It is easy to say these guys played well, but at the end of the day, the whole team won. Individuals do not win games of footy,” he said.

“That wind had a big part to play in the game. That was pretty telling. 

“We wanted to get the first score in the last quarter. That would have gave a bit of momentum. That did not happen so we just had to hang on and that’s what we did, hoping we could create a bit of a margin to defend that, and that was good."  

Bailey said that the Rovers did not convert as much as they probably could have in the first quarter. “But they (Tigers) did the same. 

“If we had made the most of our opportunities in the first quarter the margin would have been far greater, but that’s pressure. 

“We had plenty of options for our forward to go to and we kept that open and we just relied on the ball coming into those guys.” 

Rovers were affected by the widespread flu but Bailey said this had been the case across all four of the local teams.  

Bailey said that his strategy in the finals was to keep rotations happening to ensure everyone was fresh. “We have got quite a lot of players that have a lot of run, so we try to use that to our advantage. We have got the ability to play out the four quarters but next week is different. We will see who is available.” 

The coach said Dave Pethybridge, who plays on the ball, 15-year-old Ciro Body, Archie McPherson on the ball, Blain McCormick in the ruck, Pat Dickie and Sean Vrana in defence, stood out.