His three clutch last quarter goals got the Jets home against Marrar last week and the midfielder backed up with three against TRYC, including the winner.

Once again, he was barely given an inch but still managed to stamp his mark.

“Yeah, sort of getting a heavy tag but we’ve got plenty of on-ballers and they take a load off which is good,” Haddrill said.

“I’ve never been this deep in finals in senior footy so loving every minute.

“It can happen again for the next two weeks and I’ll be happy.”

While Haddrill and Mitch Maguire had some key plays, the experience of 300-gamers Ben Prentice and Stu Hutchins and milestone men Andrew Bonny and Chris Bell was invaluable.

“It’s been a great day and one I’ll remember for a long time,” Bonny said.

“It feels like we’ve hit our straps just at the right time.”

The 33-year old ruckman said he felt at the start of the year that they might have the team to be among the contenders.

“We’ve probably had a few injuries during the year and we knew if we could get through and make finals with not too many injuries we’d definitely be a red-hot chance,” he said.

Jets co-coach Sam Fisher agreed that having their best team available at the right time of the year has been critical. 

But he was full of praise for the old guard, particularly Bonny and Bell..

“I’m just over the moon for ‘Skeeter’ and ‘Belly’ to get a win in their 200^th, it’s just unbelievable,” Fisher said.

“It was just like back in the old days for them two, tapping it and kicking it to each other all day.”

Fellow co-coach Darren Jackson praised every player for their part in withstanding the pressure from TRYC.

“I knew they’d come at us but we just had to weather the storm,’ Jackson said of the Pies’ last quarter onslaught.

“We got it out of there a couple of times early but we didn’t make them pay and we turned it over.

“But to come back when The Rock put us under that amount of pressure was pretty good.”