Tara Murray
Werribee’s premiership dreams continue on with the club through to the Victorian Football League grand final.
The club won through to its first grand final since 2005 and only its fifth grand final in the club’s history.
A premiership would be the club’s second, the first back in 1993.
Werribee coach Michael Barlow said it was pretty cool to see what the group has achieved so far.
“It snuck up on us a little bit,” he said. “We’ve been ticking them off as they come. It’s ideal to still be able to achieve things and we’re going into a grand final.
“There’s a lot of work that has gone into it. It’s really awesome what we have been able to achieve.
“We gave them 24 hours to allow the players and the staff to enjoy it and celebrate moderately how we got here and now back to work.”
Barlow said they got the group and staff together for a Zoom meeting on Sunday night to talk about what it meant to the club and people to get there.
Werribee earned its grand final spot with a hard fought win against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday in the first of the preliminary finals.
Werribee entered the match at home as favourites on the back of a 16 game winning streak, but the Lions were one of just two teams to beat them this season.
Werribee started the better of the two sides and were able to lead by 11 points at quarter time.
The Lions came back at them in the second quarter but Werribee was able to steady and increase the lead to 23 points.
The margin would stay at about four goals for most of the second half, with Werribee winning, 14.10 (94)-9.10 (64).
Barlow said the starts had been important in both their finals so far.
“We were a bit jumpy early on,” he said. “It was hot figuratively and literally in terms of the contest and temperature.
“We handled it better in the first 15 minutes. We felt like we had good control and momentum of the game.”
From that period, Barlow said both sides had periods of dominance. He said they were more efficient going forward when they had that control.
Barlow was happy with the halftime lead, but said they have plenty of things to work on.
“We have a bit to work on,” he said. “In the first half of the third and fourth quarters, we didn’t have the answers.
“What it showed when we were down a little bit, what we have been training for the players look to slow it down worked. And the players were feeling it.
“Credit to them.”
Hudson Garoni kicked four goals for Werribee, while Connor Thar, who came into the preliminary final side, chipped in with three goals.
Barlow said Thar had been unlucky not to be back in the senior team earlier after he recovered from injury.
“He’s had some bad luck with injury the last three to four years,” he said. “He got himself going and was dangerous around 50. His pressure, we challenged him on that and he brought it.
“He was in the best six to 10 players on the ground. He was really important and took some opportunities when others weren’t.”
Kye Declase led the way with 33 possessions, while Dom Brew had 27 disposals.
Barlow said Sam Clohesy was their best in the win, while Nick Coughlan and Nathan Cooper were strong down back.
He also highlighted the job of Dom Brew on Jarryd Lyons, along with Garoni and Nick Hayes.
Werribee now faces the Gold Coast in the grand final on Sunday at IKON Park.
Barlow said they would try to treat the week leading into the grand final as normal as possible.
The Suns finished the season on top of the ladder ahead of Werribee, with both sides having just two losses each.
Werribee got the win the only time the two teams played in round nine, by two points, after the Suns led by 42 points at half time.
“We’ll be playing a side which will have 20-21 AFL players,” Barlow said. “The one game we played against them really brought some belief in the group… How to come back from being down and being important in moments.
“We’ll draw on that game a little bit, but we don’t want to be seven goals down.”
