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RELATED – HAWKS READY FOR THEIR REDEMPTION SHOT
STRATHFIELDSAYE heads into Saturday’s BFNL grand final against Eaglehawk with its confidence restored following last weekend’s impressive performance against Sandhurst.
A fortnight ago the Storm were dealt a 40-point defeat by the Hawks in the second semi-final.
The team that has carried the tag as the flag favourites for the bulk of the season were flat and made to look slow by the Hawks that night.
But the Storm regained their spark and showed last week with their 29-point preliminary final victory over the Dragons why they finished a game clear on top of the ladder to set up a premiership showdown for the second year in a row with the Hawks, who they ran over the top of in last year’s grand final and beat by 32 points.
The second semi-final loss to the Hawks, in which they were outscored 7.3 to 1.0 in the final quarter, followed a week off for the Storm, plus five games in a row against the five teams that didn’t make the finals to round out the home and away season in what was hardly a testing lead-in to September.
“We’ll take a lot of confidence out of last week,” Storm coach Troy Coates said at Friday’s grand final press conference.
“I think the first half in particular was some of the best footy we’ve played for the year and gives us good momentum to take in.
“We were pretty disappointing against Eaglehawk last game and wanted to make up for that.
“We had a number of guys in that Eaglehawk game coming off long periods with injuries… Harry Crone in the ruck, Jake Moorhead and Jack Shanahan needed that extra run, so that’s going to really help them a lot going into this week.”
Rarely is there a grand final build-up that doesn’t include a hard-luck story and this year is no different, with injury denying 18-year-old Bailey Henderson the opportunity of playing in his first senior grand final with the Storm.
Henderson, whose leg speed would have been valuable on the QEO, suffered a fracture in his left shoulder socket when tackled during the preliminary final.
“Bailey is obviously really flat with having to miss out, but every year there seems to be one or two who miss out,” Storm skipper Kallen Geary said.
“But in saying that we’ve got two guys who missed out last year who will get the opportunity to play in Caillum Brady and Tom Dowd.”
One of the injury challenges the Storm has had to deal with this year has been the unavailability of star goalkicker Lachlan Sharp for half the season.
A combination of hamstring injuries and a broken leg on the eve of the finals that will cost him the chance to be part of Saturday’s grand final team have restricted Sharp to just 10 of a possible 20 games – yet he still kicked 74 goals.
However, the return of Bryce Curnow to Tannery Lane after winning a premiership with Calivil United last year and the arrival of the highly-touted Hugh Robertson from Seymour have ensured the Storm have still had two key avenues to goal.
Despite missing the first six games of the season with a knee complaint Curnow has booted 56 goals in 14 games and earned 11 Michelsen Medal votes.
Only twice in Curnow’s 14 games has he been held to less than three goals, while he has booted four hauls of at least five in his past seven matches.
“It has been a new-look forward line to the team we had year last year and probably for the better; we were probably a bit too one-dimensional with Sharpy last year,” Geary said.
“We get the opportunity with Bryce and Hughy to have a couple of key targets up forward and that means if we can get the ball up there as quick as we can it gives the big guys a chance, and then we’ve got the smaller guys at their feet who can do some damage.
“It’s a completely different dynamic and much better for the mids going forward that we can send it in there and be confident that the boys will get the job done.”
Fergus Payne (36 goals) has also played a valuable forward role for the Storm, while Coates was lively inside 50 with three goals in the preliminary final win.
The Hawks have kept the Storm guessing by naming a squad of 25, rather than a final 22, not that it’s of any concern to Coates.
“We’ve got to focus firstly on ourselves. We think if we get everything right from our end then the score will take care of itself,” Coates said.
“In saying that, we also have to get our match-ups right. We’re planning on them playing the same 22 they played against us two weeks ago and if there’s changes on the teamsheet before the game then we’ll assess that.
“We’ve already spoken about what the possibilities will be with the guys who could come in and we’ll have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C ready to go.”
Coates is in his first year as Storm coach after taking the reins from three-time Strathfieldsaye premiership coach Darryl Wilson.
Coates previously coached Kerang to four Central Murray league premierships and is also a former Eaglehawk player, which included playing in the Hawks’ losing 2011 grand final team alongside good mate Josh Bowe, who will be his rival coach on Saturday.
“I played at Eaglehawk seven years ago and their team has completely changed. There’s probably only three players still there from when I was and with Josh coaching there, we’ve had a good friendship over the years,” Coates said.
“I’m pleased for him to see them doing well... it’s going to create that bit more banter between us and there’s going to be some bragging rights that will follow this weekend.”
Geary, also an ex-Eaglehawk player who won last year’s Nalder Medal, says the arrival of Coates this year has given a fresh perspective at the Storm.
“We’d had some good success with Darryl, but you can only go for so long without having a change; I think the club needed it and Darryl probably needed a rest as well,” Geary said.
“Having Coatesy come in and lift that professionalism just a little is something the group has really thrived on.
“And having him out on the field really helps the group because when things need to be changed on the fly, he can make it happen and he leads by example.”
The Storm side on Saturday will feature 13 members of last year’s winning grand final team, which includes Geary, Jayden Donaldson, Kellan Smith and Lachlan Bonney who have the chance to win a fourth flag.
The Storm is a club that is just 10 seasons old, but is playing in its fifth grand final in the past six years, with Saturday an opportunity for Strathfieldsaye to add to its 2014, 2015 and 2017 flags.
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