THE real Spotswood finally reared its head in the Western Region Football League division 1 finals on Saturday - and just in the nick of time.

The Woodsmen were back to their best to annihilate Sunshine Kangaroos by a mammoth 103 points in the preliminary final at Chirnside Park.

There was a sting in the tail of the three-time reigning premiers stemming from their shock second semi-final defeat to Albion Cats, the team they will meet in the grand final.

Woodsmen player-coach Ben Kelly said his side was keen to get back on track after receiving a rude wake-up call in the semis.

"The boys were really determined," he said.

"We really needed to bounce back.

"Albion pulled our pants down the week before."

The Woodsmen shot out like a greyhound chasing a rabbit.

They piled on 12 goals to one in the first half to set up a runaway win.

Full-forward Mark Keenan and centreman Michael Lewis bagged four goals apiece for the Woodsmen.

Full-back Daniel Mangan was vice-like in restricting the Kangaroos power forward Patrick Wiggins to two goals and electrifying on the rebound out of defensive 50.

Will Langlands was like a ball magnet at the stoppages.

The focus for the Woodsmen quickly turned to Saturday's grand final at Chirnside Park.

They come face-to-face with the only team in the competition that genuinely has a chance of defeating them. The Woodsmen go in with a different mindset to the team that ran out last Saturday week and got walloped by the Cats.

Kelly admits some of his players took their eyes off the ball that afternoon.

"It was, sort of, slipping away from us and getting acceptable to turn up and think someone else will do the work for you," he said.

■Full coverage of the WRFL division 2 grand final on pages 116-117.

SCOREBOARD: Division 1: Preliminary final: Spotswood 20.17 (137) d Sunshine Kangaroos 4.10 (34)