AN undermanned Gormandale caused one of the upsets of the North Gippsland football season, eliminating Boisdale-Briagolong on Sunday.
In wild wintry conditions at Stephenson Park, the Tigers ran red hot in the final term, holding the Bombers at bay, unintimidated by their more fancied opponents.
Tiger captain Daniel Domaille was instrumental in his side's nine-point victory, in which Gormandale secured a preliminary final berth.
Boisdale-Briagolong got off on the right foot, booting the opening goal, but faded away in a performance bearing little resemblance to its early season form.
In a game of contrasting terms, neither side was able to break clear.
Gormandale peppered the posts in the opening term as the Tigers' small crumbing players did well to rove the packs and hold the ball within their attacking 50.
Toby Callanan proved to be the villain in front of goals for the Tigers, missing four shots before slotting through his opener in style.
Andrew Gieschen had his first goal after the Bombers' defence cleared its offensive zone to move the ball through the middle of the ground to goal.
The goals quickly dried up as play concentrated between the two half back lines, with both sides missing opportunities.
Hard work by the Bomber forwards had Danny Pratt goal before Brendan Solomon responded for the Tigers reeling the margin back to two points.
Tiger Ben Marks was becoming a ball magnet, picking up possessions in both the forward line and mopping up across half-back, as he drew plenty of attention from the opposition.
Callanan's second major regained the lead for the Tigers as frustrations began to boil over for the Bombers.
Two 50 metre penalties handed Gormandale its fourth major, Wayne Henry making no mistake as he split the sticks.
Solomon made it consecutive goals on the run, before Steve Burgess got in on the action soccering through a major.
The margin blew out to 21 points in favour of Gormandale as the momentum favoured the underdogs.
Best-on-ground Bomber Ben Plozza made it consecutive majors, a snap shot at goal making it three on the run as the Bombers intensity lifted.
The Bombers drew within two points late in the first half before Gormandale goaled prior to the long break and pushed the buffer out to nine.
It wasn't pretty footy early in the second half as both sides were desperate at the ball before Ben Carr broke through to goal for Boisdale-Briagolong.
Lambourn was unable to bend his kick back in the wind, however Gieschen had no issue goaling from the pocket.
The coach's second major had the Bombers regain the lead for the first time since the first quarter.
Errors riddled play as the Bombers held Gormandale goalless until a late snap by Domaille had the ball roll through the posts.
Scores were level at the final change; Lambourn got Boisdale-Briagolong off on the right foot with the opening goal.
But it was all Gormandale in the final term, the Tigers' desperation evident as they added three goals to two and it could have been more had they converted a number of failed opportunities.
Clever vision by Marks resulted in the small forward sitting the ball up for Burgess who had his second.
Boisdale-Briagolong was kept in the game by errant kicking in the wind, with a number of the Tigers sharp shooters struggling to register a score in the strong winds.
The margin remained under a kick for the majority of the term before a goal by Jamie Lynn on the siren blew the margin out to nine, 11.10 (76) to 10.7 (67).
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