THE Swan Hill men’s soccer team are determined to claim a slice of history when they play La Trobe University Red in Sunday’s BASL division 2 grand final in Shepparton.
They are chasing back-to-back premierships for the first time in the club’s history, having defeated the Deniliquin Wanderers 3-2 in extra time last season.
While Swan Hill went into last years decider as favourites, Sunday will be a completely different scenario.
They are the underdogs after finishing fourth and needing to win two knockout finals to qualify for the grand final.
That included defeating the recently promoted Shepparton SC 2-1 in last Sunday’s controversial match.
Swan Hill will no doubt gain plenty of confidence from defeating their divisions premier team last weekend, with men’s coach Tony Di Palma telling The Guardian a repeat performance should produce a similar result.
“To try and go back-to-back will be a hard thing to do,”he said.
“We’ve played this team (La Trobe) twice this season and both times we haven’t won,” Di Palma said.
“To beat Shepparton last Sunday was a massive effort from the boys, we’ll go in confident, but we just have to be careful in defence.
“We’ll work out what mistakes we made last time against them and tweak it up a little bit in the formations.
“If we can get the boys to play like they did on Sunday, then we will be in with a chance.
“The way the boys were focused and played together as a team, if we can bring that this week then I’m confident we can bring it home.”
Di Palma and his coaching staff won’t have to look back far for a reference point, with the two clubs having clashed in the final home-and-away match of the season.
That day resulted in a 3-2 win to La Trobe University, although Swan Hill were considerably undermanned, with midfielders Jason Stokes and Jake Cameron, along with defenders Jim De Gregorio and George Hardwell missing from the Swans line-up.
One player who did play but won’t be playing on Sunday is Gareth Johansen, with the influential midfielder suffering a season ending ankle injury in the 2-1 win over Shepparton.
“Gareth (Johansen) will be a massive loss and we’re going to have to re-jig our line-up a little bit as a result,” Di Palma said.
“We may drop Cooper (Fox) back there, we don’t know yet, but he will leave a big hole.
“We’re going to have to be strong in the midfield and in our defence, we’ve got our forwards pretty much on song at the moment, with Conner and Faizal along with Jason and Steve who are playing as more attacking midfielders, but we need to be careful in defence.”
Swan Hill captain Fox will be a key player, no matter where he plays, with opposition teams aware of his match winning passing and shooting from the midfield.
Division 2 leading goal scorer Conner Brown will be the other Swan with a target on his back, with the striker having found the back of the net on 27 occasions in 2023.
With eight of the 16 players having played in last year’s decider, the Swans are well placed according to their captain, who has overcome a hamstring injury to take his place in the side.
“We’re all feeling pretty revved up, after making a grand final from fourth, I think we’re all pretty keen to have a crack at it and go back-to-back,” Fox said.
“We’re confident in our team, everyone’s starting to come good at the right end of the season and playing our positions well.
“If we can play our best football, which means putting pressure on the ball and maintaining possession, then I’m sure we’ll get the job done.
“We want to go out there and try and win it, the boys are keen, they’re ready and hopefully we can bring back some silverware.”
