Spotswood’s Will Overton Skinner chases Albion’s Marcus Smith in the semi-final. 69926 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
SO here we are again. As the biggest day on the Western Region Football League calendar approaches, the two best teams of the year prepare to do battle.
In a repeat of last year’s grand final, reigning premier Albion will take on Spotswood.
Little has separated these teams all season. Albion have a 2-1 head-to-head record, and finished the season a half-a-game in front of Spotswood at the top of the ladder. Thirteen points was the biggest margin between the two sides this year.
Spotswood came so close to advancing directly to the grand final, but then was almost knocked out by a courageous Altona side the week after.
The thrilling preliminary final between Spotswood and Altona was a clearer indication of the evenness between the league’s top five teams than the aberration two weeks prior, when Spotswood thrashed Altona by 96 points in the qualifying final.
But Spotswood and Albion were the clear stand-outs this year – and the victor on Saturday will be a worthy premier.
Albion has played one game flanked by two weekends off this finals series, as opposed to Spotswood, which has had to play three games in a row to get here.
Cats coach Marcus Barclay said the gruelling preliminary final should play in his side’s favour.
“It was a bruising encounter, which is always good to see when you’re sitting in the stands waiting for the winner the following week,” he said.
“Spotswood will spend the next three or four days in recovery I’d imagine, where we got that time now after having a look at them to really hone in on the structures that we want to put in place on the weekend.
“I think that’s probably an advantage, but once it hits Thursday and Friday and Saturday that adrenalin of grand final kicks in and it doesn’t really matter who’s played and how hard you’ve played the week before, it’s a whole new ball game.”
Spotswood coach Chris O’Keefe is expecting little to change from the sides’ previous five epic encounters, including last season’s semi-final and grand final.
“You know what you’re going to get with Albion,” O’Keefe said.
“They’re going to come to play and we’re going to have to play at our best to really have a chance of winning.
“We’re just going to go away this week, prepare and just make sure that come Saturday we do everything that we can.
“They’re very good around the stoppages and through the middle. You really need to get that pressure on the ball carrier going forward because if they get good delivery into their forward line, their forwards are so dangerous.
“They’ll kick a lot of goals. We’ll just be trying to limit the supply they get and hope to be able to capitalise the other way.”
While Albion has defeated Spotswood the last two times they played (by a combined 21 points), Barclay has the utmost respect for the Woodsmen, who are competing in their fifth Division One grand final in a row.
“They are the measuring stick,” Barclay said. “It’s something I’ve realised after coming into the league this year, that everyone wants to beat Spotswood. They know exactly how to play and they probably know exactly how to prepare.
“Both sides seem to match up pretty well. It’s just a matter of more than half of our side playing better on the day.
“You wouldn’t expect anything different than a bruising encounter, it’s just a matter who can finish it off.”
Albion’s Sam Stephens and Romain Grenville will both be right to play after receiving injuries in the last quarter of the semi-final, while Spotswood’s Torin Baker, who received a nasty knock to the head in the second quarter of Saturday’s game and sat out the rest of the match, has been medically examined and is a chance to take to the field.
The grand final will be played at 2.15pm this Saturday at Avalon Airport Oval.
