Exciting Finals round brewing

Drysdale coach Ben Carmichael. (Sports Media Image/Marcel Berens)

The second round of finals in the BFNL are shaping up to be exiting contests, with Barwon Heads and Drysdale, who had a well-balanced and close match last weekend, both confident of doing well in their respective games this weekend at Portarlington Reserve.

Barwon Heads takes on Torquay in the second Qualifying Final on Saturday, with Seagulls senior coach Mitch Herbison hopeful for a bit of an upset win.

“Both times Torquay got the better of us earlier in the year and they’ve shown over the course of the season they’re clearly the team to beat, and they finished on top,” Herbison said.

“So it’s going to be a tough challenge, but hopefully we’re peaking at the right time and playing our best footy at this time of the year, and we’re looking forward to the challenge,” he said.

Last week saw the Seagulls take a narrow, hard-fought, two-point win over Drysdale in the first Qualifying Final, which Herbison said was a close call.

“It was a really tough contest against Drysdale and one that potentially could have gone either way, so to come out narrow winners was great for us and the way that the 22 that were out there played it was pretty pleasing for the coaching group,” he said.

He also said the team had a healthy player list to choose from, but there will be some tough choices to make for this Saturday’s game against Torquay.

“We should get Charlie Perks back into the team,” Herbison explained.

“He had a little niggle in his knee last week, so we’re looking at getting him back into the mix, but we’ve got a few tough decisions to make.”

On Sunday, Drysdale takes on Anglesea, who had a 28-point win over Modewarre last weekend, but Drysdale coach Ben Carmichel said it will be a close game.

“In previous contests against Anglesea they’ve been tight contests, with moments in games where one side had the momentum then the other side’s grabbed it,” Carmichael said.

“So we’re expecting a close hard game, going off the last couple of times we played them and even last year we’ve had some good contests against them.

“We didn’t get the win last week (against Barwon Heads) but we certainly thought we played very well, but just couldn’t finish the game off.’

Carmichael said the team for this Sunday’s Semi Final hasn’t been finalised yet.

“There might be one change, but we’ll just have to wait and see, he said.

“We’ve still got a few days before we play, so we’ll just see how that plays out.”