BALRANALD will go into one of the most anticipated Central Murray league games in recent memory full of confidence, having defeated Woorinen in their first finals match in over a decade.
Before Saturday’s seven-point win over the Tigers, Balranald’s last final was way back in 2010, when they lost the preliminary final to Swan Hill.
But after a finals victory against one of the Central Murray’s perennial finalists, the Roos will go into this weekend’s clash with the reigning premiers believing they can not only match Kerang, but beat them.
With the game to be played at Greenham Park, the Balranald township has been abuzz for weeks, but senior coach Jydon Neagle knows that will count for nothing when the two teams run out on Saturday.
“We’ve known for the last couple of weeks that we had this (second semi) final coming and it was probably a little bit of a burden to us on the weekend, to be honest,” Neagle said.
“I think a lot of supporters have been concentrating on this game against Kerang, but as a playing group, knew we had to worry about getting through Woorinen first.
“I’m glad we got through on Saturday, but we’re also under no illusions how tough this Saturday is going to be.
“(Kerang) finished on top and undefeated for a reason and that’s because they are a really good footy team.”
Neagle was also pleased to expose his young side to the rigors of finals football. Several players have never tasted finals action in the blue-and-white stripes.
“We said all week that it doesn’t matter what we’ve done for the past 18 weeks,” Neagle said.
“It doesn’t matter if we’ve beaten Koondrook-Barham by nearly 200 points or lost to Kerang, we’re one of the top five teams in a knockout series now and every team will believe they can win every game.
“It’s going to come down to little moments and we just need to have more positive moments than negative moments.
“Being such a young side and it having been such a long time between finals appearances – I mean Ben Fuller hasn’t even played finals for Balranald before Saturday’s game – I think that was a bit of a wake-up call for the boys.
“They’ll learn from that and we’ve just got to take our opportunities when you get it.”
While Fuller, along with several teammates, may have been in his first final, he was still an enormous presence in the Roos’ forward half against the Tigers.
He kicked two first-quarter goals to keep his team in the contest while Woorinen controlled much of the play in the opening 30 minutes.
But while Fuller hit the scoreboard, Balranald’s forward entries became predictable, with Neagle and the Roos coaching staff making some adjustments after quarter-time that arguably changed the outcome of Saturday’s qualifying final.
“We know that most teams try to double and triple-team Ben every week,” Neagle said.
“We changed a few things up at quarter-time and started to get the ball into Seth (Connell) and a few others that were free.
“Seth reaped the benefits of that, he started getting dangerous and eventually (Woorinen) had to be accountable for him as well, which kind of changed what they were doing in their defensive half to a degree.”
