By: Joseph Arthur
South Belgrave and the Waverley Blues are set to clash in the Division 3 grand final this Saturday afternoon at Jubilee Park.
Sitting at 19 – 0 this season, South Belgrave is the team to beat but a plucky Waverley Blues squad shouldn’t be taken lightly after upsetting Ferntree Gully in last week’s preliminary final.
A perfect season beckons for the Saints and senior coach Luke Galliott is positive his side will bring its best and won’t be complacent.
“Look, we believe we’ve done the work, we’re prepared and we’re ready to go,” Galliott said.
“We play well every week and we’re not expecting anything but to play well again on the weekend, but the boys understand it’s just another game so complacency is not really an issue for us.”
Coming in to the game after a week off, Galliott said it was helpful to give the boys a chance to rest and recover following the qualifying final, yet is being careful to ensure they haven’t lost any focus or touch.
“The week off certainly allowed us to overcome any niggles and things like that, but you never really know until the day whether it was a good thing or a bad thing to have the week off,” Galliott said.
The Saints will need to contain the Blues’ midfield that comes into this game in stellar form behind two big finals wins.
Galliott said he has a plan in place to nullify Waverley’s best, understanding if the Saints can stop them it will go a long way towards securing victory.
“We’ve identified they’ve got three stand-out players in (Ben) Turner, (Billy) Evans and (James) Coghlan and we’ll put the time in that’s required to nullify their influence,” Galliott said.
“There’s no doubt we really respect others, but they’re the main three. Those guys in particular won’t get it their own way, that’s for sure.
“Otherwise we’re going to focus on team defence, work-rate and all the things we do pretty well.”
For the Waverley Blues, they are hoping to pull off the fairy-tale finals run from fourth-place on the ladder all the way to grand final victory.
Despite the dominance of South Belgrave, the Blues will be confident in their ability to pull off an upset, coming into the game with plenty of momentum.
Blues’ senior coach Bryce McGain said anything other than their absolute best won’t be near good enough.
“They’re (South Belgrave) a really good team at 19 – 0, I guess everyone has had the best-laid plans to challenge them and they’ve dealt with every one of them,” McGain said.
“We’re confident that we can certainly challenge them, but we’re going to have our work cut out for us.
“We just need to play at our best and let our players play to their strengths.”
The best way for the Blues to give themselves a chance is by nullifying South Belgrave’s forward line, limiting its opportunities in-front of goal and not letting superstar Leigh Odermatt off the leash.
McGain said winning the midfield battle will be crucial to stopping the Saints’ forward line, highlighting the necessity to starve their forwards of chances.
“The best way (to stop their forwards) is to stop the ball getting down there,” McGain said.
“Overall, if we win our fair share of the ball in the midfield that’ll help us to temper their forwards. Just win the ball where it is so they can’t get it down to the best forward in the competition.”