General News
21 August, 2019
Power well placed in flag bid
KOLORA Noorat coach Ben Walsh admits his side still has everything to prove when it faces Nirranda in the Warrnambool and District league senior football second semi-final clash this weekend.
KOLORA Noorat coach Ben Walsh admits his side still has everything to prove when it faces Nirranda in the Warrnambool and District league senior football second semi-final clash this weekend.
The first-year mentor said the Power, who has been widely tipped to win the premiership, still had to earn their stripes against the Blues at Merrivale Recreation Reserve despite finishing on top of the ladder.
“We had a good chat after our last game and we said that all we’ve done so far is given ourselves a chance (to go deep),” Walsh said.
“Our focus (each week) has been on being better than we were the week before, that hasn’t changed all year and that won’t change this Saturday.
“Come five o’clock on Saturday we’ll reassess with a plan for whether we win or lose.”
The Power hold a mental edge over the Blues this season given they won their two home and away encounters by two points in round five and by 61 points in round 16.
But Walsh is expecting Saturday’s contest to follow the lines of the pair’s recent games over the past two years, which he said had been “some really good battles”.
He said he felt both sides had plenty of knowledge on their opponent, admitting it was unlikely either club would spring a surprise on the other come game time.
“Most of the sides have played each other a few times now and all have played each other fairly recently so I don’t think there will be any surprises,” he said.
“It’ll just be whoever plays better on the day, they’re probably thinking the same as us in terms of they know us well, but we’re really looking forward to Saturday.”
However, Walsh said he believed the key to victory would most likely lie in the midfield battle, with both clubs boasting plenty of firepower up forward.
“Both sides probably think they have pretty dangerous forward lines so whoever can control the midfield will probably come out on top,” he said.
“That’s nothing new for us though, we always put a focus on contested ball and certainly at this time of year that becomes more important.
“We know that when we get it on the outside, we’re playing to a lot of our guys’ strengths so we’ve probably put more attention on the inside stuff this year because that will be super important this Saturday.”
Walsh said his players were excited to get their finals campaign under way after watching fellow sides from the club play in qualifying finals last Saturday.
The reserves were unfortunately beaten by Old Collegians 6.7 (43) to 1.2 (8) in their clash, while the under 18s defeated Timboon 8.3 (51) to 4.3 (27), with the under 15s also to begin their post-season this weekend.
The under 15s and the under 18s will both take on South Rovers at Merrivale on Saturday, while the reserves will play the Tigers at Allansford on Sunday.