SEA Lake Nandaly and Nullawil are both aiming to create history when they face off at Boort in tomorrow’s North Central Football League grand final.
The Tigers go into the match hoping to become the first team this century to go through the season undefeated, while the Maroons want a title in their first season since crossing from the Golden Rivers league.
Sea Lake Nandaly will go into the match as warm favourites, defeating Nullawil by 44 and 27 points this season.
Tomorrow’s match is anything but a foregone conclusion, with the Maroons coming into the match as a team in form, having won both finals and seemingly playing their best football at the right time of the year.
Nullawil are no strangers to grand final day success either, having won back-to-back premierships in the Golden Rivers before shifting leagues, with coach Brett Barker happy to take the underdog tag.
“The pressure is on them (Sea Lake Nandaly) having not lost so far this season, not to mention they’ve only played one game in the past three or four weeks,” Barker told The Guardian this week.
“Finishing third or fourth isn’t a bad thing if you win that first final. In fact, we come into the game with momentum and we’re ready to go.
“We’re going to play with freedom and enjoy the day, whereas hopefully they feel a bit of expectation and who knows what can happen with a bit of scoreboard pressure.”
Nullawil will need to find a way to slow the impact of a couple of key Tigers, especially nine-goal semi-final hero Josh Jenkins and reigning Feeny Medallist Trent Donnan.
Jenkins is a key member of Sea Lake Nandaly’s forward structure, but he won’t be the only dangerous forward wearing yellow and black, with Billy Mcinnes (48 goals), John Summerhayes (37) and Thomas Cox (24) also lively around the sticks.
It will be a similar story at the other end of the ground. Mitch Farmer, Andrew Oberdorfer and Adam Thomsoncan all have the potential to kick a big of goals.
With the temperature set to climb tomorrow afternoon, fitness and fresh legs are set to be a factor.
Sea Lake Nandaly co-coach Bryce Delmenico knows that won’t be the only determinant to the result.
“We pride ourselves on our fitness, but they seem to be pretty fit themselves, going off their game on the weekend they ran the game out well,” Delmenico said.
“It (winning) will be a massive challenge, they (Nullawil) tend to play a short, passing style and a handball receive game which can be hard to break down, so we’ll need to be at our best.
“Just to get the win tomorrow will mean so much to the club and the town.
“We won’t shy away from it, we want to win and we know what’s at stake, but regardless of being undefeated or not, we know we’re going to be in for a contest.”
The midfield battle promises to be one of the deciding factors, with Ryan O’Sullivan and Dean Putt set to command plenty of attention in their head-to-head ruck battle.
The Tigers’ Austin Mertz, Delmenico and Donnan are all among the most damaging onballers in the competition, but so too are Nullawil’s Matt Quigley, David Isbister, Josh Bamford and Dean Smith.
Winning the contested ball will go a long way to deciding the outcome, along with pressure at the contest.
Barker knows that stopping the supply in the midfield is one of the key ways for his team to shut out Jenkins and the Tigers forward line.
“Finals are won and lost in the middle and if we can stop their entries into their forward line being lace out, then that will go a long way to helping us win,” Barker said.
“I think we match up really well against them in the middle, even in the ruck with ‘Sully’ (O’Sullivan) and ‘Putty’ (Putt).
“Our onballers are strong and fit and they have a very similar midfield with several big bodied midfielders too, so it will be a good battle.
“I think we have to accept that he’s (Jenkins) going to kick goals, but if we can apply pressure like we did last week against Birchip-Watchem, then hopefully we’ll have a similar result on the scoreboard, too.”
