MALLALA will host Virginia this Saturday at 2.45pm in the Adelaide Plains Football League A-grade grand final with the Magpies looking to turn around a 63-point margin in which the Rams triumphed in the sides’ round five matchup.
Magpie coach Jason Earl said he feels like his group is a different side from that day, and it will be more about its lifting own performance than obsessing about Virginia’s game-plan.
“They belted us last time, but we feel we’ve certainly improved since that game,” he said.
“For us, it’s going to be about getting our game working – we had a really poor day when we last met, but we’ll be focusing more on ourselves and what we can do, while also being mindful of their capabilities.
“Ultimately, I feel if we execute our game plan that will hold us in pretty good stead.”
Virginia coach Denis Eaton said he is going to stress to his players how important it is to soak in the experience of playing in a grand final, because you never know when you’ll get to play in another one.
“I’m just going to tell them to take a deep breath and just smell it,” he said.
“I’ve been in five grand finals in my day and it just goes so quick – you think it’s going to be like every other week but just with more on the line, but one minute it’s Friday night and you’re preparing, and then you blink and it’s Saturday night and the game is gone.
“I remember my first grand final when I was 18 in 1992 – we lost that game by five points and every September when someone raises the trophy I shed a tear because I’ll never forget the feeling.
“It sits in my guts, and I’ve said to my boys ‘don’t let that happen to you’ – don’t let an opportunity become a bad memory.”
Eaton said he knows big games are often decided by the best players – as long as they want it enough to let nothing stand in their way.
“When you watch guys like (Gawler Central’s) Charlie Molyneux play, when he wants to get the footy he’s going to go and get it, and nobody is going to stop him,” he said.
“We’ve got a few guys like that in Benny Russell, Brendon Niklaus and Matty Rankine who are capable of grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck, but they have to want to do it.
“Brendon said to me after (the preliminary final) how he’d done very little during the day, but with five minutes left, when we needed him most, he decided nobody was going to stop him – and he won us that game.
“He’s the best full-forward this league has seen in the past 15 years, and if we can bring that kind of mindset and be switched on from the first bounce, we’re tough enough to make anyone’s day miserable.”