Redan co-coach Eammon Gill, left, Sunbury captain Jay Cheep and Sunbury coach Rick Horwood at yesterday’s BFL grand final media conference at Saxon House. PICTURE: JEREMY BANNISTER
SATURDAY’S Ballarat Football League grand final between Sunbury and Redan at Eastern Oval will be a showdown.
But Redan coach Eammon Gill insists it won’t be a shootout.
At yesterday’s Red Onion BFL grand final press conference, Gill said the free-flowing, virtually non-contact first quarter in last weekend’s preliminary final against East Point was not the type of football Redan wanted to bring to this weekend’s grand final.
Instead, he said, expect to see a fierce contact and plenty of tackles.
“I think we will be seeing a very different first quarter than last weekend,” Gill said.
“One of our main measures as a side is our one percenters. At quarter time (last weekend) they were below.
“I think you will see a fierce contest for the first 15 minutes of the game.
“Think back to a couple weeks ago and the AFL first final between Collingwood and Hawthorn and there was just tackle after tackle.
“Every grand final I’ve seen in the Ballarat Football League the first 15 minutes has been very hot (like that).
“Compared with last Saturday I think we will be seeing a different picture.”
One of the positives to come out of Redan’s relatively bruise-free preliminary final is no new injuries. Gill said that the players who came into the team last Saturday all contributed to the victory.
That will create some difficult decisions for the L&H Lions ahead of selection, and make a number of players who have been in and out of the team in the past few weeks very nervous.
“The 22 who played last week are all fit to go again this week,” Gill said.
“A very big bonus for the club is to have all three grades in. It is a fantastic achievement to go with having three netball grades in as well.
Last night in the senior group there were over 50 players training, so there are players there putting their hands up for selection.