By Wil Spence
Mooroolbark came out on top Sunday Afternoon, defeating Montrose by 15 points to meet Mitcham in the preliminary final, for a shot against East Ringwood in the Division One EFNL decider.
It was a grind of a game for the Mustangs, with the wind playing a major role for both sides, with Mooroolbark holding a slender lead at the main break, before Montrose came out swinging in the third quarter to take a one goal lead into the final quarter.
With the wind at their back, it would be easy to see Mooroolbark run over the top of the Demons but given their inability to finish the game in similar circumstances against Mitcham the week before, coach Brett Lavars wasn’t taking any chance.
“The fact we were kicking with the wind was not going to help us, and it needed to be about our brand of footy and what we had tried to implement for the day, and the boys had that hunger after letting it slip the week before.:
Not a known goal scorer, Jayden Weichard starred in front of goal kicking four goals, but Lavars was more pleased there was a spread of goal scorers and hopes to continue this trend against Mitcham on the weekend.
“It’s a focus of ours to not be reliant on a couple of forwards, we want some diversity, and we were really pleased Jayden (Weichard) was able to bob up and kick four,”
“We felt our midfield needed to win enough contested footy to give ourselves opportunities to go forward and help our defence. We need to look after the boys and try and restrict the amount of time the opposition have the ball inside 50.”
Coming into an exciting clash against Mitcham, who defeated the Mustangs a fortnight ago, Lavars squad will have some personnel changes leaving the Mooroolbark coach confident that if his team sticks to their processes and prepare well, a Grand Final appearance is well and truly on the cards.
“The brand of footy we want to play won’t change; it’ll probably just be our endeavour on how we execute,
“We feel last week we took massive strides to recoup and regain some belief as a footy club,
“It makes us have to do it the hard way, but in some ways that can be beneficial for a group you have that continuity of playing, hit some form and bring that confidence into Mitcham this weekend,
“We give ourselves belief against both sides, and if we’re fortunate enough to be in it at the end of Saturday’s match, we like to think it will give us the best possible chance to beat Mitcham”.