2024 Finals – Week 3 Preliminary Finals

From the first day of our preseason back at the start of December, we had one goal in mind, to be playing on the 22^nd of September 2024. While there have been some challenges along the way, some doubt, certainly plenty of frustrations, one thing that never waived in my mind was what our playing group were capable of. Credit to every player in our group that has worked incredibly hard day after day to put us in this position. We have encouraged our players to take some time last night and today to enjoy the feeling, they deserve to be able to do that. As soon as we get up and going on Tuesday morning our focus will completely shift to Sunday afternoon and the Norwood Football Club and what promises to be an outstanding Grand Final.

As we have done in our previous 2 finals, we were able to start this one with great energy and some really good momentum in the game through the first quarter. We were able to play the game in our forward half of the ground for a large period. We did feel at the break that we had not capitalised as much as we probably could have with a little bit more composure with the ball. In big games though score board pressure is the best pressure you can apply and while our second quarter was a little frustrating on a few accounts we were always able to have an advantage on the score board which is critical and that was a key message to our group at the half time break.

Our second halves of games over the previous 3 weeks have been really strong and while Centrals to their credit continued to come at us, our groups ability to lift our intensity and turn up the pressure was really pleasing. It is an area of our game we have got back to a level that we know we are capable of and when we are locked in the rest of our game falls in behind. There won’t be any secrets in what is important into next weekend, being relentless in our pressure for 120 mins will be a critical factor.

Our Reserves groups season came to an end on Saturday morning, going down to a strong Norwood team. While it is disappointing not to see this young group on the last day of the season, we are really proud of what they were able to do over the year. The list profile of the group is very young and inexperienced as a whole but the development we were able to see in a number of players was really encouraging. They were able to play some exciting football at times and also able to fight their way through games. Credit to all that played throughout the year, we are excited by what we think we can see out of a number of players into next season.

Again, yesterday the support that we had and the energy that our players get from the supporters was fantastic. We can’t thank you all enough for turning up week after week throughout the year. We can’t wait to get there on Sunday and get to work, the noise and energy from you all might just be the little difference in the game. Look forward to seeing everyone there.

Go The Bays

– Darren Reeves, Senior Coach

Goals: Hosie (4), McBean (4), Chandler (2), Allen, Gerloff, Stretch, Lovelock, Reynolds

Best Players: Bell, Allen, Snook, McBean, Hosie, Proud, Adams