Back to the Bay
On Sunday afternoon, Glenelg and Norwood will do battle on the Adelaide Oval from 2:30pm, with Radio Italia Uno kicking it off from 1:30pm live on 87.6fm.
Liam McBean Tigers skipper, on what winning would mean;
“I'd just love to be able to celebrate with not only the 22 but the 50 that have represented us across the course of the year and bring another cup back to the bay.”
Glenelg are looking to win, and be back-to-back premiers for just the second time in their history. The Tigers have had a sustained look at the premiership cup, competing in four of the last six grand finals, and winning just two of them to date.
Glenelg coach Darren Reaves has drawn some confidence from the fact that his side have had to come from an elimination final and play every week of the SANFL finals series, as opposed to Norwood who have only played the one game this finals series to date.
“It probably hasn't changed too much. We've been focusing day to day really, probably out of the Centrals’ game, trying to just get back to doing that.
“Probably where we're at as a team, we probably needed to keep playing. We weren't playing great footy so getting some continuity into our game was important,” Reaves added.
Lachie Hosie has pulled up well ahead of the grand final on Sunday. Hosie hadn’t played since Round 7, making his return in last Sunday’s preliminary final in exciting fashion, booting four majors.
“I think he's [Hosie] pretty sore as you'd expect, just general soreness, having not played for a long period of time but the knee's fine, the hamstring's fine, [he] should be ready to go which is exciting,” Reaves went on to say.
Teammate and captain of the club, Liam McBean was thrilled to have Hosie back in the team and back up forward with the two combining for eight goals last Sunday.
“I think it's pretty well documented that we love playing with each other and with Renno [Luke Reynolds] up there as well. It's a pretty damaging sort of look for us. He's just so explosive and obviously he can change games in the space of a couple of minutes.
“So it's really nice to have that structure back to be able to pull him deep and sort of isolate different matchups. I think it's really important for us. But yeah, I think it would just be great to build some more continuity for him as well.”
One team has gained great momentum (Glenelg) and the other has played one game in three weeks (Norwood). Glenelg is drawing some confidence from that fact, but McBean believes it won’t account for much come Sunday.
“I think by the time the ball bounces on Sunday, it really counts as nothing. We've done it different ways over the last few years, and I mentioned, I think, having a bit of extra footy for continuity has been important for us.
“And obviously getting some guys back from injury always helps. But by the time the ball bounces, mate, I think the contest will be won and lost on the day, and nothing really counts before that in my eyes.”
Norwood are very strong around the footy, led by Magary medallist Harry Boyd. Tigers head coach Darren Reaves had his say on where the game can swing his side’s way.
“They're a great football team. They've got weapons all over the ground, they've got a great back line. Their midfield is stacked with serious talent. They've got blokes who can get on the end of it and kick goals.
“It's going to be a hell of a challenge for us. We're going to have to be really strong around the football, get the football going our way and then play some time in our forward half and put some scoreboard pressure on them, it'll go a long way to winning.”
It is going to be a great battle this Sunday between the Tigers and the Redlegs, with the action kicking off at 2:30pm, live from the Adelaide Oval.