BEYOND THE BOUNDARY – B.J. O’TOOLE
August 31.
It’s a date East Geelong coach Ned Aulsebrook circled on the calendar for more than a month ago.
With the minor premiership a fait accompli since last month, the Eagles’ push for a first premiership since 2009 has been aided by the knowledge that they’d be starting their finals campaign out of a second semi-final.
“We’ve had a real focus over the last 4-6 weeks on building into this August 31st date we’ve had locked away for a little while now,” Aulsebrook said.
“I’m excited to see how the boys respond from the Round 18 game against Winchelsea.
“But it feels like we’re ready to go for Sunday.”
East Geelong will face the Belmont Lions at St Albans Reserve for the first time since the 2007 grand final.
The Eagles welcome back Jayden Fanning, Billy Andrew and Will Hough but have lost Wallace Gemmill (concussion) and Caleb Lowndes (illness), while Will Jozipovic has been omitted.
Aulsebrook was impressed by the Lions Werribee Centrals by 50 points in last week’s qualifying final.
“They looked really good,” he said. “Werribee, I thought, could have taken a few more chances early on and put them away a little bit, which I’m sure they’d agree with.
“But, Belmont, their ability to score heavily in quick bursts makes them really dangerous.
“We’ve got to put four quarters of good footy together and make sure we’re fully focused for that whole two hours of footy because they can stack a score on pretty quick.”
The Lions will take in the same team that took care of the Centurions, with Nick Sherriff right to go despite a minor hamstring issue ending his day early last week.
Andy Walsgott, who was honoured alongside co-coach Brent Vermeulen as co-coach of the GDFNL Team of the Year earlier this week, says East will be hard to beat.
“They just do the basics so well,” Walsgott said. “They hit their targets; they’re clean below their knees.
“They just keep doing that time and time again.
“There’s no shying away from that they’ve got a strong backline – (Jack) Beardsell, (Jack) Dickson), and (Jaydan) McLauchlan, and they try and penetrate from there.
“It’s their back six against our forward six, and (we’ll) see what happens.”
GDFNL: AT SELECTION – SEMI-FINALS
On Sunday, Werribee Centrals faces Thomson in a knockout first semi-final.
As reported by K rock Football yesterday, playing coach Rhyce Prismall and captain Michael Culliver will return from injury for the Centurions, who are keen to advance to a preliminary final for the first time since 2019.
They replace Connor McKenzie and Ethan Gibson, who are both battling soreness.
The Tigers have named former Geelong and Carlton AFL player Billie Smedts in its squad before a final training session tonight (Friday).
@krockfootball
