By David Stockdale - Mercury
EARLY in the last quarter at Bellerive yesterday, the Devils' nine-game VFL winning streak looked in danger of coming to a sudden end.
A roaring crowd of 10,176 at the second elimination final began to lose its voice as a charging Frankston reduced a 22-point deficit to 11.
To make matters worse, defenders Mathew Jovanovic and Scott Stephens were on the interchange bench nursing ankle and arm injuries and Luke Shackleton followed them off with a strained shoulder.
But it was then the Devils turned on the after-burners, thanks mainly to the brilliance of centre half-forward Justin Plapp to extend their record club winning streak to 10 matches.
Plapp kicked four goals for the quarter -- three of them in seven magical minutes -- to finish with eight as the Devils stormed to a 46-point win, 17.19 (121) to 11.9 (75).
As if the Devils' final-term blitz of 6.6 to 3.0 wasn't enough to make fans delirious, Jovanovic and Stephens came back on later to prove they will be available for next Sunday's first semi-final against the Northern Bullants at Bellerive.
The Devils will also have Brett Geappen available next week after serving a three-match suspension.
Devils coach Mathew Armstrong was delighted with the way the Devils finished the game off.
"We were pretty good all day, but in the last quarter, when we had Jovanovic and Stephens off for most of the last quarter, I thought we were superb,'' Armstrong said.
"Our only real injury worry is Shackleton, who we will know more about in the morning.
"We really responded when the pressure was put on us and that's been a strength of our side for a number of weeks now.''
Armstrong said Plapp, who at 185cm wouldn't even be regarded as a tall in AFL parlance, had been getting better week by week after being plagued by hamstring problems earlier in the season.
"He's a professional who trains hard and prepares himself well. He got the rewards today and good on him.''
But by no means were the Devils a one-man band.
Ian Callinan again gave AFL scouts more reasons to consider him as a mature-age draft pick by harvesting 25 possessions and kicking three goals.
Stephens did a fine job to restrict the Dolphins dangerman Justin Berry to two goals after Berry had racked up 11.2 in his previous two games against the Devils.
"Superboot'' Ken Hall racked up 30 possessions and kicked one goal and Nathan Street again rebounded well out of defence.
In conditions that were unseasonably warm, Armstrong kept his onballers fresh for a big finish by constantly rotating his interchange bench.
So it was surprising that, with the notable exception of Ben Setchell, the Devils did so poorly at the stoppages.
Rival coach Brett Lovett said the Dolphins had pleased him in the way they several times fought their way back into the game, the problem being they were unable to sustain it.
"Big Daniel Clarke wasn't the impact player he's been in previous games against Tassie and Sam Anstey was down as well,'' he said.
"We didn't get enough quality ball out of the midfield and they made us pay for the high number of turnovers we made.''
The Northern Bullants, the Devils opponents next week, suffered a crushing 87-point loss to Sandringham in the second qualifying final on Saturday.
The two sides have split their nine previous meetings four matches each with one drawn, although the Bullants won the only match between the two sides this season by 18 points in round nine.
2nd elim final Result
TASMANIA 3.5 7.10 11.13 17.19 (121)
FRANKSTON 2.2 3.7 8.9 11.9 (75)
Goals: Tasmania: Plapp 8 Callinan 3 Beams 2 Atkin Hall Lonergan Setchell. Frankston: Ablett 2 Berry 2 Winterton 2 Fortnam Clark Pollard Roberts McCormack.
Best: Tasmania: Plapp Setchell Hall Callinan Street Stephens. Frankston: Roberts Ablett Hynes Murphy Kemperman Winterton. At Bellerive Oval. Crowd: 10176
Last Modified on 29/08/2005 08:25