The Box Hill Hawks have won their way to a preliminary final berth, defeating Port Melbourne by 13 points in Sunday’s thrilling qualifier.

Hawthorn-listed ruckman Marc Pittonet says while the Borough challenged all day, the Hawks were able to wrestle back momentum when it counted.

“Collectively it was a fantastic win,” said the 21-year-old.

“One of the emphasises that we’ve had is just being able to arrest momentum, which Port Melbourne did manage to get back a few times. 

“Credit to them, they’re a very good team so we knew they were going to come and play a really good quality brand of football, but we just stuck to our guns and responded really well.” 

Read: VFL match report - Hawks edge closer to grand final berth

After making his debut and playing three senior games in 2016, Pittonet was unable to break into the AFL side this season despite being a consistent performer for Box Hill.

While the ruckman’s ultimate goal is to return to the highest level, he is relishing the experience that VFL finals brings.

“Being on an AFL list, I’d love to be playing AFL,” said Pittonet.

“But this is about as close as you can get to an AFL game, so having a good VFL final series just goes a long way in terms of building that credibility and showing what you can do.

“It’s just about building your game, gaining confidence, and then when you do take that step (up to AFL) you are confident in your abilities.”

Pittonet is no stranger to finals, having played part in Box Hill's 2015 campaign. After playing every game during that season, the first-year Hawk was dealt a tough blow when he was overlooked for selection in grand final week. The Hawks ended up going down to Williamstown by 54 points.

However, just two seasons on and both Box Hill and Pittonet are staring down another attempt at premiership success.

"I just want to make up for a bit of lost time," said the ruckman.

"We'll do what we can to get into that grand final and hopefully there's a premiership at the end of it.

"As a collective, we'll just keep pushing on."

Box Hill now awaits the result of the Casey Demons' clash with Richmond this Saturday, to determine who it will line up against in its preliminary final a fortnight from now. 

Images courtesy of Kadek Thatcher Photography