By Mikayla van Loon
After a disappointing preliminary finals appearance, Mooroolbark Football Club’s seniors are seeking redemption in this weekend’s semi final clash with Montrose.
Coach Bret Lavers said while not the start to their finals campaign the team had envisaged, he and the playing group are grateful for a second chance at a grand final position.
“We definitely didn’t play our best footy but full credit to Neil and his coaching group,” he said.
“The Mitcham Football Club played good footy, they were a lot hungrier than we were. I thought their brand was really strong and unfortunately for us, they got on top flight and it was a bit of an upset I have to say.”
Lavers said after the prelim final against Mitcham, he, the players and coaching group evaluated what went wrong to hopefully adjust for the game against Montrose.
“A lot of it was down to our own doing as much as it was a credit to Mitcham. We’ve addressed some areas we think we’ve got some shortcomings from last week and probably the last part of the season.
“We feel that we picked a squad that’s good enough to beat Montrose this week and we hope to go out and execute well and give ourselves every opportunity to win.”
Although Mooroolbark has beaten Montrose twice throughout the season, Lavers said Montrose will be coming into the finals with some confidence off the back of a great end to their season.
“They’ve won seven on the bounce now, they come in with a lot of confidence. Gary’s been able to put a lot of kids through but they’ve got a blend of experience mixed in there as well.
“We have to win more footy than what we did last weekend. I don’t think we won enough contested footy and we exposed ourselves and left ourselves vulnerable.”
Coming into the weekend with two positive training sessions under their belts, Lavers said the team is feeling good about the match up.
With the women’s veterans team also playing in the grand final on Saturday afternoon, the feeling around the club, Lavers said, is vibrant.
“We hope that it’s a good game of footy and everyone gets down there to watch and hopefully, we’re on the right side of the results to continue our finals campaign.”
