The Courier |
WHAT motivates a Redan player with a swag of Ballarat Football League premierships under their belt to fire up for yet another preliminary final?
Seeing the young players fighting tooth and nail in their first finals series ever, says Lions coach Eammon Gill.
The maroon and gold has reached the preliminary final, or at least skipped straight to the grand final, in seven of its last eight seasons.
Such a period of sustained success means Redan is no stranger to the big stage, at least most of them.
There are still a handful of young Lions playing in their first senior finals series, which Gill said helped keep some of the older players fresh.
Matt Caris, Dan Colbert, Aaron Gercovich, Ben Schiltz, Cam McKenzie, Hayden Riley, Liam Hunter, these are just some of the names that have made their finals debut this year.
“The older guys who have had finals experience actually get confidence out of the younger blokes doing good things in the finals series,” Gill said.
“If you have Brendan Peace or an Ash Barker seeing Hayden Riley, Cam McKenzie or Aaron Gercovich in their 10th or 12th game and play in a finals series and actually do quite well it gives them some confidence as well.”
There is certain to be some selection dilemmas at the Redan selection table tomorrow night.
It is unlikely injuries will rule anybody out of Saturday’s clash, but with key midfielder Jarrett Giampaolo to come back into the side, somebody faces the prospect of being the unlucky player, or players, to fall out of the side.
“We’ve got some pretty sore bodies from playing two finals, a couple of the older blokes are a bit sore,” Gill said.
“It’s something we will have to consider on Thursday.”
