East Geelong coach Ned Aulsebrook insists his side is blocking out external noise around the club’s poor recent finals record as it prepares for Saturday’s preliminary final clash with a rampaging Bell Post Hill.
The Eagles will attempt to avoid a straight-sets exit from the finals after winning the minor premiership for the third time in four years.
In fact, East has won only one final since the pandemic impacted local football—the 2023 elimination final against Bannockburn—and has lost five.
“There’s a lot of external noise about that, and a few of the boys have spoken about proving people wrong,” Aulsebrook said.
“We lost two finals last year; we got beaten in a hurricane against Belmont, and a rampaging Thomson side beat us in a close game.
“North Geelong have beaten us three times this year; they’ve had the wood over us.
“We take real confidence in the fact that if we play well this weekend, we should get the job done.”
East controlled large parts of last week’s second semi-final loss to North Geelong, but failed to capitalise on the scoreboard, something the coach admits must change if they are to reach the grand final.
“We had momentum for the first two quarters and didn’t capitalise,” Aulsbrook said.
“That’s something we’ll look at heading into this week. But yeah, (we’re) we’re focused on getting the W this week and moving into, hopefully, the grand final.”
Aulsebrook has no plans to overhaul his side’s style, instead backing a game plan that has delivered throughout the season.
“We’ve lost five times – three of those to North, one to Belmont (Lions) at Belmont, where our game plan didn’t play out the way we wanted to on a small ground, and Werribee (Centrals) torched us up there,” he said.
“Outside of that, it’s worked for us across the year.
“We’re “We’re confident in the way we want to try and move the footy.
“In saying that, there will be a few tweaks in things we do on Saturday; not on a whole team scale, but individual jobs as far as setting up behind the ball and obviously targeting some of the opposition players.
“That might be something we look at doing this week to take away their strengths.”
East will be bolstered by the return of GDFNL representative Ben Mulvahil from a hamstring injury suffered in the win over Bell Post Hill in Round 16, with Jude Payne squeezed out.
“Ben’s ready to go, which is exciting,” Aulsebrook said.
“He straightens us right up and brings a big, strong body around the ball.
The coach also highlighted the importance of curbing Bell Post Hill’s playmakers, with star midfielder Dylan Witney a primary focus after a dominant performance in last weekend’s semi-final win over East Geelong.
“When we played them in Round 16, he nearly got them back into the game single-handedly,” Aulsebrook said.
“Any coach worth his salt will have Witney’s name on the board before the game.
“And they’ve got real star power with (Dylan) Godwin, (Jack) Yates and (Caleb) Bacely as well; they’re really big names that we need to try and mitigate at some stage.”
X: @krockfootball
