By ADEM SARICAOGLU
WERRIBEE Giants coach Phil Balzer is not afraid to drop the ‘F-bomb’ on his playing group.
While most coaches, no matter their game, loathe mentioning the word ‘finals’ so far out from the post-season, Balzer has made it clear he expects his Giants to be there later this summer in Division Two baseball.
“In front of the boys last week I said the F-word, but there’s no reason we can’t make the finals given the games we’ve got ahead of ourselves now,” Balzer said.
“And I don’t shy away from that with the players, either. If they’re going to take it up, then they need to be talking about it.
“It’s one of those unwritten rules in footy and other sports as well that you can’t talk about finals and it’s one week at a time and so forth.
“But I think if you’re going to set goals and challenge yourself, well then you can be brave enough and stick your chest out and say ‘this is what we’ll do’ and ‘this is what we want to achieve’ and then go out there and get it.”
Werribee is currently 9-5 coming into the New Year and should be able to secure a place in the finals if it can go above 500 in its remaining six regular season games.
Hoping his Giants can get there, Balzer has been keen to instil a competitive edge within his stocks that he hopes will prove handy come the post-season.
“I want to talk about finals,” he said.
“I want to get these guys mentally thinking about it so it perhaps brings on that extra pressure on them, which is what they’re going to have to deal with come finals time.
“Pressure does build and increase in those games, so they need to be able to perform under that pressure.”
Werribee’s season resumes this Sunday away to Moorabbin.
