By RUSSELL BENNETT
ELLINBANK AND DISTRICT FOOTBALL LEAGUE
PREVIEW – SEMI FINALS WEST DIVISION
CORA LYNN v KOOWEERUP
Semi Final 2 – Saturday from 2.05pm at Catani.
Ladder positions: 1st (15 wins, 3 losses) versus 2nd (14 wins, 4 losses)
Earlier this season:
Round 2 at Kooweerup – Cora Lynn 15.9 (99) d Kooweerup 9.13 (67).
Round 9 at Cora Lynn – Cora Lynn 12.13 (85) d Kooweerup 7.7 (49).
Round 16 at Kooweerup – Kooweerup 9.12 (66) d Cora Lynn 7.7 (49).
THIS is it – after 21 rounds with each side facing each other three times throughout the home and away season, the business end of the year is finally on our doorstep.
Yet, it’s bound to be the cards that each side has held close to their chests that will prove pivotal in both this week’s match-ups.
Coming off the bye, the Cobras have the most intriguing build-up to this week’s one versus two battle. Coach Travis Marsham held a “finals’ launch” at the Cobra dome on Saturday with around 150 Cora Lynn faithful attending. Though it was a day off for the players, it was compulsory for them to attend and – not only that – they were put through their paces in an hour-long training session by Marsham’s former coaching colleague Aussie Jones.
They then watched a highlight video that contained more than 15 minutes of footage from throughout the season so far – a reminder of the intensity that they’ll need to somehow improve on in the finals.
One of the stars of the Cobras’ pump up video was Jeremy Monckton. His relentless run and tackling pressure will have to come to the fore yet again on Saturday if the minor premiers are to go on and take another step towards achieving the real thing.
Though the Cobras won their first two clashes of the year against the Demons relatively convincingly, they were brought crashing back to earth in Round 16 with a 17-point loss. Now on Saturday we’ll see how much they’ve learnt from it.
Marsham admitted this week was all about strategy.
“It’s a tactical game in how attacking you go – whether you stretch them, or attempt to have them covered.”
Marsham expects a ferocious, fast-paced clash at Taplins Road and he’s openly hoping for a dry deck, but whether the rain continues throughout the week and softens the deck or the sun belts back down, Ricky Clark will be crucial.
“We had our vote count on Saturday and it was a tie between Ricky and Jack Allen,” Marsham said, with Clark adding to the multiple club best and fairests he claimed at Gembrook Cockatoo.
“He feels really good and he’s back to his ideal playing weight at Narre Warren – he’s about 75 kilograms and he’s in great condition too.”
Marsham and his assistants went straight from Cora Lynn’s finals launch to Catani to watch the Demons play the Blues and one thing was obvious when they got there – the continued dominance of Luke Walker.
“Walker is a key for them every week,” Marsham said.
“The Millers and the McGraths too – they’re brilliant on the attack and we’ll have to try and curb that.”
Cora Lynn has a lot of firepower up forward though and their midfield – led by Clark – has been a shining light all season.
Jackson Dalton, Anthony Giuliano, Luke Foreman, and the Gillis brothers are all set to spend time up forward on the weekend and it’s an even spread that Marsham is banking on for his side to get the win this week.
“We’re not expecting the miraculous,” he said.
“We just need to replicate that effort from our last Catani game.”
Foreman and ruck ace Brad Horaczko have been rested in recent weeks and both will be back on Saturday. The Cobras are buoyed from winning their first ever Club Championship at the league’s senior vote count on Monday night – an indication of how well they’ve performed from top to bottom all season – but he was quick to point out that all counted for nothing now.
“We’re all starting at zero from here,” he said.
On Kooweerup’s side of the ledger – Matt Shorey returned in Round 21 and impacted the scoreboard straight away.
He’s been cautious with his troublesome lower-leg injury over recent weeks but even he said he was pleasantly surprised with how he pulled up on Saturday.
“I got told six or seven weeks ago – after I hurt it against Cora Lynn – that this was it, that I wouldn’t come back,” he admitted.
“I didn’t like hearing that because I wasn’t going to play on again next year but I’ve got the bug back now.”
Shorey said his whole Demons’ group was “really excited to take them (the Cobras) on”, and that while Cora Lynn had the rest in Round 21, momentum was key.
“We’re not supposed to win this – and we know that – but that’s the way we like it,” Shorey said.
“This is really anyone’s game,” adding how proud he was of his group sustaining their winning form over the season’s final weeks.
As for the key to beating Cora Lynn?
Well that strategy game is still well in play and Shorey’s cards may as well be stapled to his chest at this point.
But he would admit it all started with finding an answer for Clark.
“He is the key to their on-ball set-up,” Shorey said.
“I rate my guys against them but they’ve got a lot of quality in there.”
Unsurprisingly, Shorey rated Ben Miller is a 50-50 chance of overcoming his ankle injury and playing this week and the Demons will do everything they can to get him up.
They’ll need to if they’re to keep progressing and have a shot at their first flag in 33 years – Funnily enough, Shorey’s age.
PREDICTION: Cora Lynn by five points.
NAR NAR GOON v GARFIELD
Semi Final 1 – Sunday from 2.05pm at Kooweerup.
Ladder positions: 3rd (11 wins, 7 losses) versus 4th (10 wins, 8 losses)
Earlier this season:
Round 1 at Garfield – Nar Nar Goon 24.11 (155) d Garfield 9.7 (61).
Round 8 at Nar Nar Goon – Nar Nar Goon 13.8 (86) d Garfield 11.10 (76).
Round 15 at Garfield – Garfield 15.8 (98) d Nar Nar Goon 11.13 (79).
IT’S been said around the West for weeks now – the one side no one wants to come up against in the finals is Garfield.
On the one hand, the Stars were the lowest seed in the top four and were the last to wrap up their finals’ spot. They suffered a couple of beltings throughout the year and they don’t have a traditional monster full-forward to rely on.
But on the other – this side is beginning to peak at exactly the right time. Not only have Tom and Ned Marsh returned from the top end to bolster their engine room – they, along with brother Ben, are now powering it.
Tom and Ned have been the Stars’ best in recent weeks – including a Round 20 game the side should have won against the Demons – and they clearly give Ryan Hendy’s side a whole new dimension.
Dylan Collis will return from suspension this week and will be bursting out of his skin from the outset. Though his one-match ban ruled him ineligible from taking out the Alf Walton Medal on Monday night, he came awfully close to polling the most votes in a sign of just how impressive his season has been.
Now, picture him back in the Stars’ midfield rotation alongside the Marsh boys, his younger brother Will and boom recruit John Atwell and it’s clear why the Stars are so dangerous.
There are plenty of fresh faces from last season’s premiership side, but there are also plenty of familiar ones. Add in the likes of Nick Battle and Hendy himself and you have a serious threat.
Hendy has been hampered by a groin complaint all season, restricting his time spent on the ball, but he’s still kicked 53 goals at an average of more than three per game.
Now that we’ve covered how Garfield can win Sunday’s do or die clash – let’s switch to Nar Nar Goon’s chances.
Scott Goldsworthy’s side is simply the best structured in the competition and on a dry deck will cause as many headaches as any of the three other sides remaining.
Brendan Hermann’s run and spread throughout the season saw him come awfully close to claiming the Alf Walton for himself, while the likes of Brent Hughes, Josh Grant and Matt Krawczyk make up a superbly well-credentialed hard ball-winning pack. Nick Henwood, Sam Van Der Zalm, Mat Slattery, Chris Adams, Shannon Stocco and Goldsworthy himself each play their roles superbly but together the sum of all their parts is what makes them so dangerous. The Goon’s style is the epitome of team-first play and the boys remaining from the 2010 premiership will be able to attest to just how strong the club culture is down at Spencer Street. When the going gets tough, these tough-as-nails players get going.
They’ll need to if they’re to survive this week, though. If Garfield was an engine right now, it’d be roaring on eight finely tuned cylinders.
PREDICTION: Garfield by two goals.
