NNW United must keep playing their way to produce another upset in this Saturday’s preliminary final against Kerang, according to co-coach Corey Daniels.
The Demons are riding a five-game winning streak since their loss to the Blues in round 14 by just one point.
Their outside run and speed was on show against Woorinen, a performance that will give them confidence.
“We just have to keep playing our way, that’s the key for us, to just keep attacking and take the game on,” Daniels said.
“(Kerang) are a great side and have been for the last decade, so it’ll be a challenge, but it’s a challenge we’re excited for.
“You have to dare to dream, don’t you?
“We recruited well during the off-season and a few of the boys got themselves fitter and put a lot more work into their footy and were starting to reap the benefits of that.
“It’s exciting. I don’t think too many people thought we’d be playing off in a preliminary final outside of our group, but we’re there now and we’re really excited for it.”
The only negative on an otherwise flawless day for the Demons was Joel Wash playing out the game clearly hampered by an an apparent hamstring injury.
He will no doubt be monitored during the week.
Daniels said “everything went to plan” against Woorinen.
“We played some good footy and we were able to expose them on the outside, but we were pretty good on the inside too,” he said.
“I thought (Woorinen) played well in patches too, obviously speed in the game is a big thing for us and we were able to get the game played in that fashion for much of the day.
“Stoppages were massive, and winning territory, keeping the ball in our half and getting repeat entries was the key.
“Looking back, whoever won the ball out of the middle tended to have the game played on their terms.
“They obviously wanted to switch the footy a fair bit coming out of the back line and try and open us up on the spread, but we defended the ground really well.”
While NNW United’s game plan was no secret, it was still proving difficult to counter as the season progressed.
Kerang will be yet another step up in grade, but Daniels was confident his team will be up to the task of taking down the reigning premier.
“Speed is hard to defend,” Daniels said.
“We don’t play the purest style of footy, we just knock it forward, surge and keep running. We just want to get the ball going forward any way we can.
“That’s what we do most weeks and we usually do it well, which can be hard to defend.”
