Player Column – Dylan Main Preliminary Final

THERE were plenty of positives to take out of last weekend’s second semi-final loss against Subiaco. The boys put in a valiant effort all day, starting out of the blocks quickly and giving us a handy lead heading into the first change due to our bold ball movement and physicality early. 

Losing Steve Verrier in the second quarter meant our structure had to be tweaked a little and although we held off a strong fight back from the Lions in that quarter eventually, as good sides to, Subiaco got a run-on in the third and took the lead. 

Our ball movement became repetitive and predictable and our turnovers hurt us a lot throughout that middle part of the game, so in the last we tried taking a few more risks and some really paid off whilst some did not. Although taking positives from the game you go out each and every week wanting to win so in that respect it was disappointing, and we are looking to bounce back this weekend.

Luckily, all the hard work throughout the home and away season lead to us gaining a second chance in the finals, so we cannot dwell on last weekend too much as we look forward to taking on West Perth this Sunday at Fremantle Oval. 

There is definitely some confidence that was taken out of the qualifying final against the Falcons, however we are expecting a totally different game then when we played them two weeks ago as they are a very talented side and I’m sure they will be hungry to win and bounce back as they did last weekend. 

Nothing changes from our point of view, we just need to continue playing our brand of footy as we have shown it stands up against the best teams in the competition. The Falcons have a really strong midfield group who performed well in their last game and I believe this Sundays game will be won or lost in the midfield contest, however I’m backing our boys to get the choccies! 

We have been playing some good footy the last month or so and have really blossomed heading into this finals series, so our boys just need to continue to build on that for another couple of games. 

The whole atmosphere around the club at the moment is exciting whether that’s on the training track, during our meetings or from our volunteers and we would love nothing less than getting the win this weekend to advance to the big dance.