West Preston-Lakeside is taking in every moment in the lead up to the Meadows Greyhounds Division 1 grand final.
The Roosters will be full of confidence heading into their first grand final appearance since 2010 after a comprehensive 70-point victory over North Heidelberg in the preliminary final.
The club is filled with enthusiasm and anticipation according to coach Rob Maiorana, who believes his playing group will take nothing for granted come Saturday.
“The club is really excited. There’s a good buzz around the place and we’re all just really proud of the playing group and the hard work they have put in all year,” Maiorana told NFNL.org.au.
“The morale is really good, especially after a couple of finals wins and it helps the belief continue to grow. We will enjoy the ride and enjoy the week and just have a real crack at it on Saturday.”
West Preston-Lakeside kicked off its finals series in disappointing fashion, going down to North Heidelberg by 32 points in the qualifying final, in what has proven to be its only loss from the past nine matches.
The Roosters bounced back quickly from the defeat, downing reigning premier Bundoora by 52 points in the first semi before turning the tables on the Bulldogs in the preliminary final.
“What we took out of (the preliminary final) was that we know that our best is good enough and we belong in the NFNL final series,” he said.
“We take away great confidence from that performance, especially coming up to this week against Macleod.
“But the main thing is we’re in the grand final and we’re excited to be in there.”
West Preston-Lakeside played the entire second half of the preliminary final with just two fit players on the bench after Ahmed Saad and Ozgur Uysal sustained hamstring injuries.
Mairoana said both star players would be given every opportunity to prove their fitness this week.
“We made the decision in the end to be very cautious with both of them. It was just precautionary to keep them off in order for them not to do any more damage and make it any worse than it was,” he said.
“I think by doing that it will now give them every opportunity to come up this week.
“We’ll assess those guys during the week but I’m pretty confident they’ll come up okay for Saturday.”
The availability of Jaylon Thorpe will also keep the selection committee busy at J.E Moore Park.
Thorpe has played seven games for the Roosters this season and was involved in Williamstown’s one-point defeat to Box Hill in the VFL preliminary final on Sunday.
“He’s obviously coming off a disappointing loss, so he will probably have to clear his mind for a day or two,” Maiorana said.
“But we’ll work out with Jaylon whether we bring him back into the fold and whether he’ll help us this week.”
West Preston-Lakeside heads into this week’s decider as the last team to have defeated Macleod. On that occasion, the Roosters booted six goals to two in the final term to claim a 16-point triumph at De Winton Park in Round 14.
“We’ll have a look at it for sure and we’ll see if there’s anything to take out of it but it’s finals football now so most of it’s different,” Maiorana said.
“They’re a very even team. They don’t really have a weakness as such. They play a lot of football together and they have plenty of grand final experience, but the main aim will be to be competitive over four quarters.
“We’ve got a fair idea of the way they like to play and what their key strengths are from that game and we’ll learn from that.”
Maiorana has been thrilled with the success of the entire club thus far in season 2018 but is aware there is one major obstacle to overcome on Saturday.
“To have both our seniors and reserves finish top-three and for both to reach at least a prelim final is a good sign of the football program that we’re running, which is great,” he said.
“The boys are keen to not just be happy with what they’ve achieved so far but to also go that one step further on the weekend.”
