By Justin Flynn
Few pundits will be tipping Drysdale to win Saturday’s Bellarine Football League grand final against Torquay, but a round 17 upset has given the Hawks some belief that anything is possible.
Torquay’s only loss this season came in the penultimate round of the home and away season when Drysdale prevailed by one point and co-coach Ben Carmichael said it came at the right time.
“It certainly gave us a template to what it looks like to beat them and it gives you a little bit of confidence going into another match up against them,” he said.
“It gives us confidence knowing that we can match it with them If we play our best footy.”
Drysdale won its way through to the decider with a nine-point win against nemesis Barwon Heads.
“We’re really embracing the week, it’s new to a lot of the guys and there’s a few experienced guys that have been there, but everything that comes our way we’re just going to really enjoy leading up into Saturday,” Carmichael said.
“Torquay have got a really dangerous forward line. They don’t need many looks and they’ll kick goals.
“Our backline has held up really well, but it’s all on the back of our pressure up the ground not allowing sides to get easy kicks inside. Our backs have been super.”
Drysdale’s form since its 56-point round 14 loss to Barwon Heads has been stunning.
“It was probably that day at Barwon Heads that was a real turning point for us,” Carmichael said.
“We reflected on where we were as a group and what we did look at is we had time to fix a lot of things. So we sat back and we said we’ve got four or five weeks of finals. How are we going to bridge that gap?
“Internally we just built off that, we got a bit of continuity with our squad and momentum leading into finals is obviously big.”
Carmichael is under no illusions that Torquay has been the standout team of the competition.
“I think we just have to play an allround game against them,” he said.
“If you fall away in one area they’ll hurt you. So we certainly need to get our hands on the footy around the middle and get the ball forward and give ourselves an opportunity.
“We’ll see how the game plays out. We’ll just play our style of footy and then things that get thrown up during the game, we’ll change accordingly. But we’ll try and focus on our game style.”
Torquay suffered an upset loss to Barwon Heads in last year’s grand final, but coach Dom Gleeson said his side was ready.
“This year we’ve had a really good build up, our planning has been great and the boys are really bought into this,” he said.
“It certainly didn’t work for us last year, but there was a fair bit going on for us – trying to carry players through injured, we’re fighting fit and ready to go.
“We had enough wins on the board to suggest that we’ll finish in the top two or three so we put some planning in place to be able to rest some players, to expose players to positions (so) that’s probably what the difference is between this year and last.”
Gleeson said he was grateful to have versatility through his squad, which has 18 homegrown Torquay juniors.
He said Drysdale presented a formidable challenge and the list complimented stars such as Tom Ruggles, James Breust and Ben Fennell.
“They’ve got a really even spread of key defenders and forwards and midfielders that are helping them out,” he said.
“It’s a really strong even team and they’ve done well to put it together.”
Gleeson said his group had an extra reason to win on Saturday. Club champion James Darke will be missing after doing an ACL earlier this season.
“He’s been such a great leader,” he said.
“As soon as he did his knee he just switched into another coach for me and it’s been really incredible the way he’s gone about it.”
The game, at 2pm on Saturday September 9, is at Newcomb’s Grinter Reserve. It will be streamed live on AFL Barwon TV at aflbarwon.com.au/barwon-media/afl-barwon-tv
Barwon Heads takes on Geelong Amateur in the reserves grand final beginning at 11.30am.
