Werribee Centrals won’t be making too many tweaks to the game style that has delivered their best home-and-away record in 16 years as it prepares to face East Geelong for a second time in as many weeks in Saturday’s GDFNL qualifying final.
After the Centurions fell as far as 43 points down midway through the third quarter, they came storming home to lose by just four points and narrowly miss out on their first minor premiership since 2010.
“We don’t really need to adjust,” assistant coach Shayne Stone told K rock Football’s Beyond the Boundary podcast.
“We’ve had patches like this throughout the year where… our good is very good, but we’ve still got little aspects that we just fall into little habits.
“If you look at the first three quarters, we were one-to-one kick-to-handball ratio, and we’re just inviting pressure.
“The last quarter, we got it right in a sense.
“I think GDFL is more a territory game than anywhere else, where it’s very hard to move it from one end to the other if you get it deep, and that’s what we just couldn’t do.
“And credit to East… they were just rebounding everything and where we would turn the footy over was in real bad spots.”
Stone is confident the wide expanses of St Albans Reserve will suit Centrals, who are chasing their first premiership since 2004.
However, he says the Centurions will need to maintain focus for four quarters.
“I think St Albans will suit us… if we can defend well enough,” he said. “I think that’s our Achilles’ heel when we go to sleep.
“Against Belmont we were eight goals or nine goals or something to one, and then we just went to sleep for a little bit, and I think you get a little bit complacent at times.
“And that was probably the first quarter against East as well.
“We just weren’t at the level we needed to be.”
The Centurions have made one change, welcoming back Blake Taylor in place of Zech de Leon.
East Geelong has been boosted by the inclusion of experienced defender Jack Dickson and the return of star forward Zac Smith.
Smith, who kicked 49 goals before suffering a knee injury in the Round 12 win over Corio, has spent the past fortnight in the reserves.
They replace Jake McLean (hamstring) and Angus Farrow
AT SELECTION – FINALS WEEK ONE
The talented David Allitt will make his first senior appearance in nearly 12 months when the Belmont Lions (4th, 12-6) face reigning premier North Geelong (5th, 12-6) in Sunday’s elimination final.
Allitt missed the first two-thirds of the season because of a knee injury before returning to the Lions reserves in Round 13.
The Lions have also included big man Houtsma.
However, the Lions have lost Ben McPherson (knee) and Ollie Mayman (hamstring) to injury.
The Magpies have ruled out Jack Cambridge (AC joint), Charlie Bowles (broken finger) and Harry Jones (knee) for the remainder of the season.
However, Osca Riccardi, Jacsen Jewell, Mitch Habib, Damian Fazio, Dylan Fisher and co-captain Zac Schwennesen have been named in an extended squad.
Honours were shared between the clubs during the season.
The Lions won the clash at Keith Barclay Oval in Round 4 by 35 points, while North returned serve in Round 15 by 15 points at Winter Reserve.
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