Northampton take down Brigades with the help of Josh Kennedy and go through to the grand final

The Northampton Rams are off to their first league grand final since 2004 after taking down Brigades in the first finals game for the Great Northern Football League.

In the highly-anticipated match-up between the league’s top two teams, Brigades looked to be the favourites after an impressive season and being the home team.

Northampton had a late call up and brought superstar Josh Kennedy into the side for the qualifying final, for his second GNFL game this season, to bolster their forward line even more. The GNFL rules state that only one league game is needed to qualify to play in finals.

The Hawks looked in control to start the game, chipping to ball around the field and getting on the board early with a goal from Dale Williamson.

The Rams were given free kicks and managed to capitalise late into the first, turning them into goals to take a 2.0 (12) to 1.1 (7) lead at the end of the quarter.

To start the second term, Hawks got a 50m penalty but failed to capitalise, hitting the post.

The Rams responded by charging the ball down and Harry Taylor connecting to Kennedy. But the former premiership Eagle didn’t convert the goal.

Not long after a Northampton shot on goal was caught by both Taylor and Kennedy on the goal line but Taylor booted it through. The Rams immediately worked it out of centre to Kennedy, who got his only goal in the game.

Northampton had full ball control in the second quarter and kept Brigades to only two behinds, with the score 4.1 (25) to 1.3 (9) at half-time.

The momentum after the break was still in the Rams’ favour with the team wasting little time working the ball into their forward line, but again failing to convert. Brigades capitalised on the mistake with their first goal since the first quarter

In a 28-minute back and forth quarter, both teams booted three goals to keep the game in Northampton’s favour.

In the final quarter, Northampton opened with two quick goals to keep the Brigades’ crowd quiet.

Kennedy had two straight shots at goal but both were behinds, and while Brigades started to make a comeback with late fourth quarter scoring, it was all too late.

Northampton walked away with a 10.8 (68) to 7.7 (49) win over Brigades, sending them to their first grand final since 2004.

The Rams’ Jack Cripps and Harry Taylor each had two goals while Brigades’ Jack Perham and Kristerfer Ryder had two goals in the loss.

Josh Cripps was awarded the Ross ‘Pud’ Worthington medal for best on ground with a two-goal effort in the win.

Minor premiers Brigades will get a second chance as they face off against Railways next week in the preliminary final, with the winner facing off against Northampton in the grand final.