Panton Hill coach Steve Layt is confident his side can reverse its semi final loss to St Mary’s in this week’s Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3 Grand Final.
After falling short of the Burra two weeks ago, the Redbacks bounced back in last week’s preliminary final, defeating South Morang by seven points.
The result handed Panton Hill its first grand final appearance since its nail-biting victory in the 2013 Division 3 decider, when it prevailed over Watsonia by a solitary point.
After sitting at the bottom end of the Division 2 ladder over the past four years, Layt said the Redbacks have enjoyed being part of finals football again and are raring to go in this weekend’s decider.
“It’s well documented that we’ve had a couple of tough years and just getting back to that winning feeling again, the momentum is pretty strong at the moment,” Layt told NFNL.org.au.
“Within the playing group and also the supporters and the committee, it’s a pretty close-knit community Panton Hill and it’s a good feeling to have overall leading in.”
The Redbacks got off to a fast start against South Morang in last week’s preliminary final, leading by 19 points at quarter time before the Lions hit back to level the scores at the main break.
In an intense second half, Panton Hill were able to edge out a determined opponent in heavy conditions to booking their spot in the grand final.
Layt felt it was the perfect game for his side play in preparation for the grand final.
“We were really happy to have a good solid and hard hit-out and I knew we would get that with South Morang,” he said.
“It was a game that we had to really respond in. The physicality was enormous and we were just relentless when it mattered.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better hit-out to be honest.”
The only side to have defeated St Mary’s this season when it scored a 23-point triumph back in Round 5, Panton Hill has since lost its past two games against the Burra by two and 23 points respectively.
Layt’s priority is finding the right balance in order to have the best chance of challenging the Burra.
“We’ll keep it to the status quo. We’ve been happy with our preparation, especially in the lead up to the win we just had,” he said.
“We’re pretty much going to duplicate the same week again, but the variant will be our structure. It’ll be completely different to how we responded and went about it two weeks ago and I would imagine that St Mary’s would be expecting that too.
“We have a lot of experienced Division 1 players within the group that know finals and what it’s all about when it matters, and we’ll be counting on that to help us on Saturday big time.”
Panton Hill entered the season as one of the premiership fancies, but according to Layt, the club has already exceeded expectations.
He believes the development of the club’s leaders has been one of the important factors that has helped the Redbacks make it to the final day of the season.
“It’s been well documented that our goal this year was to play finals and to contend in 2019,” he said.
“We’re now finding ourselves in a scenario where we are a touch ahead of where we thought we’d end up. That’s purely because of the leadership within the group and the belief, as well as our experienced senior core, those six or seven players.
“It’s priceless to have coming into games like this.”
Matthew Byron is expected to return for the grand final after missing the past three weeks with injury. The key forward has booted 44 goals in 15 matches this year,
“I would imagine that providing we get through the week of training that Matty Byron will be the only change,” Layt said.
“We’ve got a couple of others that we are looking at to come in but that will all depend on how the guys get through the week.
“We’ve already had a couple of changes from the St Mary’s game two weeks ago, but we think those guys will hold their spot.
“Matty Byron’s the one to make a massive difference in terms of the way we structure up and he’s looking good to play Saturday.”
