NYAH-Nyah West United’s young squad will be looking for redemption when they cross the white line in Saturday’s preliminary final against the Mallee Eagles, according to Demons co-coach Jason Murphy.
It will be almost 12 months to the day since the Demons were humbled by Kerang in last year’s preliminary final at Tooleybuc, with the Blues going on to claim the premiership after NNW United were found wanting on the big stage.
The Blues kicked eight unanswered goals in the opening term to completely destroy the Demons, with Bradlee Pay kicking four first-quarter goals as the eventual premiers ran rampant against a shell-shocked NNW United.
Fourteen players from that game took to the field in Sunday’s 26-point win over Balranald, with Murphy confident of another strong showing in the penultimate game of the season against the Eagles.
“We had a little chat about it (last year’s preliminary final) after the game and that we’ve now given ourselves a chance to let go of those demons, pardon the pun,” Murphy said.
“Last year has sat in their guts for 12 month.
“They’ve wanted to make a better account of themselves and the way they hit the pre-season showed what they’re prepared to do.
“Now we get another crack at it and they’re ready to go.
“I’m just proud of the young boys really.
“We’ve spoken this finals series about these young United kids becoming United men.
“We’re asking a lot of them for kids who are aged 15 to 19 and to see some of them stand up in a big final against big bodies, after they had a bit of momentum, to see them stand up in the contest like that was really pleasing.”
It won’t just be last year’s preliminary final for which the Demons will be chasing redemption, with a rematch against their qualifying-final conquerors Mallee Eagles already having mouths watering among impartial observers.
The two clubs played out one of the best finals in recent memory two Saturdays ago, with Murphy hopeful his team can turn around the four-point loss and go through to NNW United’s first grand final since 2016.
“Our ego took a hit in the first half last week (against the Eagles),” Murphy said.
“We didn’t come out the way we wanted.
“We got beaten in the contest and we were a little bit fumbly.
“I thought we fixed that today with some clean ball use and under probably a little bit more heat than what was there last week and that was the most pleasing thing.
“We were clean with the ball and our game got going off the back of that and then we were able to get it on the outside and do what we do best.
“We took our medicine during the week, and a few people wrote us off and suggested we’d be out in straight sets, but we knew that we’d done the work over the pre-season to set us up to take on the best teams in the league.
“What’s left are three really good football teams.
“That’s what’s always left come preliminary final week.
“We’ve got two football teams to get over now and a chance to give our community what they want.”
Despite having to come via Sunday’s first semi-final, the Demons will take on the Eagles out at Nyah, with the Demons holding an unbeaten record at home this season.
In fact, you have to go all the way back to round 10 last season for NNW United’s last defeat at their home on the Murray, with their record at home giving Murphy and his charges confidence ahead of the second-biggest game of the year.
“We haven’t lost there for a long time so we can take a fair bit of confidence from that,” Murphy said.
“We know the dimensions, we know every little bump and every bit of kangaroo poo, we know every inch of that ground.
“It might be an advantage but it’s a small advantage because at the end of the day it will come down to winning the contested ball and whether we can create territory for ourselves.
“We were able to do that against Balranald and now we’ve got a few more steps to take to do that this season.”
