AFTER a week’s rest, top-two finishers Ultima and Moulamein are set to do battle in this weekend’s Golden Rivers second semi-final.
The first-placed Roos were lucky to have hosting rights for the clash, their return to finals football for the first time since 2019 – just one year after they finished last.
Ultima coach Kyle Symons said he hoped the groundswell of support would continue as they seek direct entry into this year’s grand final.
“It’s been really good to have such a strong following this year – getting a few more wins definitely helps to bring the supporters back out,” Symons said.
“We are all pretty excited, it’s the first time in a while that we are back playing finals, so everyone in the town is up and about to support us.”
Both sides will be close to full strength.
Moulamein coach Heath Moloney said the team was “feeling really good at the moment”.
“Obviously we had the week off which gives us that bit of extra time to recover,” Moloney said.
“It really enables us to sort out any injuries our guys may have been carrying.
“We’ve still got a couple of guys who will be unavailable, but I think we’re heading into this game pretty close to full strength which is exactly what you want at this time of year.”
While Ultima had Moulamein’s number this season, both coaches knew finals football could throw out the unexpected.
Symons said his side were under no impression the Swans would provide an easy game.
“We definitely won’t be taking Moulamein lightly, finals footy is just so different,” he said.
“We expect Moulamein to come out of the gates pretty hard and I think it’ll be a hot first few minutes, as they usually are between these sides.
“They’re a pretty physical side, they’ve got some big, strong bodies for us to deal with, especially in the midfield.
“We’ll just try to go head-to-head with them in the middle and win the ball from there.”
The midfield battle between Amos Farrell and Kade Benfield will be one to keep an eye on, with both players keen to stamp their authority.
Moulamein are in good form, winning five of their last six games.
Their coach said a shock loss in round 10 provided the spark.
“We had a bit of a wake-up call against Wandella about halfway through the year and since then we’ve sort of snapped into gear,” Moloney said.
“I think we are really all playing to the sort of game plan that we want, but there is still one glaring thing we need to fix – our goalkicking.
“We’ll just want to move the ball into our forward line and let our forwards do their thing.”
In their round 10 loss to Wandella, the Swans kicked 11.15 to 16.5, proving the importance of kicking straight.
Their final regular season game against Murrabit could have been bigger than a 41-point win, given their staggering 22 behinds.
With Moulamein’s midfielders good enough to provide their forwards with the ball, Ultima’s coach expected his back line to stand up.
“We’re pretty strong across half-back, blokes like Mitch Makepeace and Caillum Brady provide us with a fair bit of bounce from there,” Symons said.
“Forcing turnovers is a big focus for us, we really like to put the pressure on up the ground.”
Moloney hoped Moulamein’s ability to share the ball would be the difference maker.
“We’re just going to stick to our game plan, and try to do that at the level that we expect of ourselves and really shut down Ultima’s run,” Moloney said.
“We’ll be looking to play a full-on, team game and get all of our guys involved.”
