WITH Division 3 finals kicking off this weekend, Reservoir will be looking to make amends against Thomastown after being eliminated by the Bears in 2013.
The Mustangs and the Bears will be competing for the first place in this year’s Division 3 Grand Final when they meet at Shelley Reserve this Saturday.
NFL reporter Alex Karavas spoke to Reservoir coach Ross Terranova ahead of this weekend’s game.
Alex Karavas: What’s the mood like in the camp heading into second semi final against Thomastown this week?
Ross Terranova: It’s pretty positive. It’s been a tough six weeks and both the seniors and reserves boys are really looking forward to it.
AK: You have suffered two heavy defeats (and a win) against the Bears this year. What have you learned from those matches?
RT: That you can never be too complacent against the best side in the competition and I think they’re a quality side. You take nothing for granted, and that’s one thing we certainly learnt from and we’ve just got to come with the right attitude and right mindset on Saturday.
AK: It’s been an otherwise very impressive home and away season. What did you make of your teams performance in the regular season?
RT: We set ourselves some goals at the start of the season to finish in the top two and we achieved that. That was the first part, and look I’ve been pretty happy with the way we finished but, like all sides, you tend to have good and bad days. But from a whole year perspective I think we’ve been pretty consistent. We’ve had plenty of players that have stepped up to the mark when we’ve needed them to.
AK: You’ve been able to blood a lot of young talent this year, along with many new players to the club? Who are the ones to keep an eye out for in the finals?
RT: We’ve brought in a couple of kids like Kelsey Clayton, Kael Beaumont. We’ve got a good mix of senior players as well as players who have probably played the 50-game mark and then some new faces, so it’s been real positive and a really good blend. I suppose the challenge is when you have a lot of new blokes at the club, you need them to gel and bond and they’ve done that really well.
AK: You had a brilliant win over South Morang last week with several key players missing. What did you make of the match?
RT: We wanted to test our depth and we did that just to see if the other blokes can step up to the plate and South Morang are a very good side. They tested us twice this year, they come back at us in the first game and also when we played them at South Morang a few weeks ago. We wanted to make sure we played consistent footy against good opposition leading into the finals.
AK: Speaking of which, how important was it to give a rest to players like Danny O’Sullivan, Toby O’Meara and co heading into the finals?
RT: A couple of boys late in the year got a couple of niggles and stuff like that. We wanted to iron them out going into the second semi. Not all players will come in. A couple of blokes might be a little unlucky, that’s just the way it is. When you have guys that step up to the mark, and you win by 14 goals, it’s very hard to make all six changes.
AK: You were knocked out of the finals by Thomastown last year. Does that get used as additional motivation this week?
RT: We just treat it like another finals game. In the end the only thing we can look upon is that they’re the top side and the side to beat and that’s the challenge in front of us, and we’ll take that as it comes.
