Border Mail |
I REMEMBER what happened the last time Albury belted us at the pointy end of the season.
It was the last round of last season and they killed us.
Everyone was writing the Pigeons off, and even I wasn’t sure we would be able to turn things around.
But we came out and flogged Lavi in the qualifying final and then beat Albury the next two times we played them.
Footy is a funny game.
People might have written us off after Albury flogged us at Corowa on Saturday but we still think we can win it.
We didn’t play the way we wanted to play and we let them do what they wanted.
The problem for us is we’ve got to play Lavington in a preliminary final on Sunday and they are the hardest games to win.
Just look at the past few years.
It’s been a pretty good feeling for us Yarra boys being able to watch the last couple of prelims, but we’ll have to do it the hard way this time.
All you can think about when you’re in a prelim is getting into the grand final, but at the same time, you can’t forget about the game you’re in, or you won’t get there.
There’s nothing worse than losing them.
I remember when we lost the 2000 prelim to Essendon when I was at Carlton.
I was shattered.
I don’t want to feel like that again.
We’ll go in pretty confident against Lavi after beating them twice in the past month but we definitely aren’t taking them lightly.
They almost finished on top of the ladder.
But I reckon they’ll be feeling the same as us.
They will be trying their best to only worry about Sunday, but I’m sure guys there are thinking about playing Albury in the grand final.
After all, they beat them the last time they played them.
They’ll change a few things up that didn’t work last time and we’ve got to be ready for that.
Adam Flagg didn’t play last time and I saw first hand at interleague how good he is.
Whoever wins will be a big underdog next week, but you never know.
Hopefully the Pigeons can march into a sixth straight granny and derail the tiggy train when it matters, like Port Adelaide did to Richmond in the AFL.