Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault reserves defeated by Busselton in semi, must now face Bunbury in SWFL prelim

Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault have hit a bump in the road on their way to a four-peat in the SWFL reserves competition. The Lions were beaten by an on-song Busselton Magpies who earned themselves a spot in the grand final. HBL will now face Bunbury in next Sunday’s preliminary final after the Bulldogs’ 30-point win over South Bunbury. Busselton got the jump on the Lions and remained in command for the majority of the game as they led at the end of every quarter to win 9.6 (60) to 5.6 (36) Coach Ryan Macintyre said the Lions had to lick their wounds after being outplayed by the Magpies. “We were pretty disappointed not to go straight through,” he said. “We did a few things wrong, their midfield dominated and that was pretty much the deciding factor. “Their forward line was up and about and they kicked goals, we pretty much played straight into their hands.” HBL have beaten the Bulldogs twice this season by five and three goals. Macintyre said his side was confident they could make it to a sixth-straight grand final. “We have beaten Bunbury twice, we know how to play against them and are pretty confident if we can bounce back to our good footy we can probably beat them and get into the grand final,” he said. The Lions were minor premiers again this year and Macintyre said his side had a lot of self-belief due to its recent successes. “We have got a lot of young guys, but they have been lucky to be in a position to be successful in the last few years,” he said. The coach said they had lessons from the Busselton game that would be helpful if they met them in the final game of the year. “If we had of come back in the last quarter and won the game, we probably would have forgot about some things we needed to look at against them,” he said. “The bonus in losing is we get to sit down and think of a plan we need to come up with to beat them.”