IRYMPLE co-coaches Dan Coghlan and Tom Brownbridge are confident their senior football side is ready to peak for today’s grand final against Wentworth at Mildura Sporting Precinct.
The Swallows suffered a 22-point loss to the Roos in the qualifying final a fortnight ago.
However, Brownbridge said his team had “learnt a lot” from the defeat.
“We’ll have a better game plan against them this time,” the tall defender said.
“They had a couple of key ins for the game, including (influential ruckman Nick) Jensen.
“We’ve just got to get better with our hit-outs and stoppage work.
“We were pretty happy with our match-ups last time. It’s just a matter of us executing better as a team and keeping to our structures.”
One of the most mouth-watering match-ups today will be Brownbridge against the Roos’ inspirational leader, Wade Hancock.
“I should be starting on him. This will be round three against him,” Brownbridge said.
“He’s had one good game on me and I’ve had one good game on him, so this will be a winner-takes-all showdown,” he added with a big smile.
If he does contain Hancock, the Roos will be looking to Jordan McKinnon and perhaps Jack Cottrell to deliver between the big sticks.
Hancock, the competition’s leading goal kicker, has booted 73 goals in 2022, with McKinnon the team’s next best with 21 majors and Cottrell bagging 20.
The Swallows’ leading goal scorer is Nick Pezzaniti, who despite missing four games has nailed 45 majors, ahead of joint next-best Jake Healy and Liam Garlick (21) and Nick Mee (16).
Coghlan said he had recovered well from last week’s preliminary-final win against Ouyen United.
It was the 2019 McLeod Medallist’s first outing in two months after he had suffered a fractured fibula in his right leg.
“Cogs” said he would start today’s game in the forward line before switching to an on-ball role.
The premier footballer in Sunraysia since his switch from VFL club Essendon six years ago, he’s already landed two premiership wins with the Swallows, including the last full season of 2019.
He spoke at training on Thursday night about the grand occasion that awaits his side, and what it means to the ever-growing Irymple community.
“It’s really exciting and there should be a good atmosphere around the ground,” Cogs said.
“The last two years, we felt we were thereabouts to make the finals.
“So to have the finals back is a really good thing in general.
“For the broader community, it’s huge. Having us playing in the last game of the year means a lot to a lot of people.”
Brownbridge then rolled out the keys to grand-final glory for his team.
“If we stick to our guns and keep up the pressure in the contest and execute our skills properly, I think that will take us a long way to victory,” he said.
“But if we allow them to play to their game style, we’ll get beaten. It’s as simple as that.”
Hancock has vowed to a deliver a serious war-cry final message to his players.
Brownbridge said his and Cogs’ final message to their players would be “similar” to Hancock’s.
“It’s just going to be delivered in a different way,” he said.
“There’ll be some key messages of what the game means and what we need to do, but we won’t be over-complicating it for the players.”
Cogs added: “At the end of the day, we want to go out and have fun.
“For a lot of blokes at the club, this is three years in the making.
“We want to enjoy it. But we also want to make the most of a great opportunity.”
