Palmy and Surfers take to Coolangatta's home ground on Saturday playing for a spot in the Granny & many have wondered who will get Surfers big forward Ben McEntee.
Palm Beach-Currumbin defender Scott Vis looks like getting the job in Saturday’s preliminary final after coach Craig O’Brien all but confirmed he’ll get the gig on crack Surfers Paradise forward Ben McEntee. “McEntee (pictured) is a quality player and we’ll probably go with Scott on him,” said O’Brien in the lead-up to the big Gold Coast derby being played on neutral turf at Coolangatta’s home ground.
“Quite obviously the best thing to do is to stop the ball going in there to him.”
But at the other end of the ground, PBC also have problems after losing full-forward Anthony Pierri. O’Brien confirmed that Pierri sustained a double fracture of his jaw in a nightclub incident last weekend, forcing the former Cairns century-goalkicker out for what remains of the season.
Also missing from PBC’s line-up are wingman Josh McLoughlan and handy forward line pinch-hitter Lee Spizziri. McLoughlan strained a calf at training on Thursday night and Spizziri has a hamstring problem.
The Lions brought in rugged midfielder Brendan Trew, handy wingman Tim Newton and 20-year-old Jordan Wallace. A PBC junior product, Wallace had a taste of senior football last year but early this season he broke a hand and has only recently started to get back into fine form.
“He’s a good player,’’ said O’Brien of the left-footer. “He did well in the seniors last year and is now just starting to work his way back in.”
Surfers have three major gains.
On-baller Brent Harty joins big men Karl D’Orazio and Trent McIntyre for the showdown and coach Paul Hams described their returns as significant. “They are three huge gains for us – a key on-baller (Harty), a key forward (McIntyre) and a key backman,” said Hams.
“That is a major bonus for us to get some key personnel back.” Hams is confident his players – not to mention himself – have their feet firmly back on the ground after the Demons’ stunning comeback win over Maroochy-Northshore in last weekend’s first semi-final.
“The thoughts of what happened then do come back every day,” said Hams. “But we’ve spoken about it and now it means absolutely nothing if we can’t follow it up. “We’re adopting the same approach to this one – we’ll go in and give it everything we’ve got.”
The Demons have to take that sort of attitude in because they have a significant bogey to crack against PBC. The Lions have won the last six matches between the clubs and the closest the Demons managed to get in that run was when they lost by 28 points in round two last year.
This season the Lions have registered winning margins of 58 and 78 points against the Dees. Yet that was much the case last weekend when Surfers tackled Maroochy-Northshore last weekend. “We’re going in with the same attitude,” said Hams, calling on some traditional footy motivation. “These blokes play for each other and the jumper they put on. That may be old fashioned, but it’s true. They have so much belief in each other.”
PBC’s O’Brien stuck to his theory that his players will be all the better for last weekend’s hit-out, when they surrendered a six-goal quarter-time lead to Noosa before losing the second semi-final by 17 points. O’Brien blamed a ‘soft’ run into the finals, then a weekend off, as behind the Lions’ demise. “A few of our blokes struggled for second efforts against Noosa and I reckon some of them, who have not played too much football will be so much better for it,” he said. “You can tell that at training.. We had a run at Coolangatta during the week and it was a really good hit-out.”
Like almost everyone else, O’Brien feels the battle of the midfield is going to determine the winner. “Both midfields are super strong, as good as you can get in the competition,” he said. “So a lot is going to depend on who gets first use of the ball from the ruckmen.”
The comeback of Surfers last weekend amazed many, including O’Brien, who was certainly made to sit up and take notice.
He feels the return of so many injured players has been the key behind the Demons’ late charge. “Three weeks ago you wouldn’t have given them a chance, because obviously they had a lot of injuries - but now they’re playing really good footy.”
Neither Hams nor O’Brien has any complaints about the preliminary final being played at Peak Oval.
“I don’t mind playing there,” said O’Brien. “It’s not too big a ground but it is bigger than ours (Salk Oval).”
“It’s not a problem for us,“ said Hams. “We were very happy to hear we were playing at Cooly.”
PALM BEACH-CURRUMBIN:
Backs: Matt Flynn, Scott Vis, Ryan Carroll.
Half-backs: James Drake, Chris Williams, Zane Templeman.
Centres: Angus Munro, Mark Mooney, Arnold Knight.
Half-forwards: Ryan Rodgers, Greg Pires, Tim Newton.
Forwards: Matt Carroll, Adrian Hill, Jedd Williams.
Rucks: Michael I’Anson, Brent Rynehart, Mikal Bloom.
Interchange: Aaron Lohrey, Darryl Dyson, Jordan Wallace, Brendan Trew.
SURFERS PARADISE:
Backs: B Blackwood, Michael Wise, Chris Hughes.
Half-backs: Brent Harty, Brad Peters, Karl D’Orazio.
Centres: Adam Hall, Travis Tamburro, Regan Finlay.
Half-forwards: Jacob Clark, Matt McCormack, Luke Pridmore.
Forwards: Dan Green, Ben McEntee, Trent McIntyre.
Rucks: Jon Stephens, Simon Fenton, Brad Scalzo.
Interchange (from): Kristian Rizzo, Nathan Sullivan, Toby Petrak, Mat Goonan, Clint Cassidy, Scott Hardy.
article courtesy AFLQ
Last Modified on 05/09/2009 17:56