With a Grand Final berth up for grabs the stakes are understandably high - and that’s fine for Darren Harris’ men, buoyed by the come-from-behind win over arch-nemesis North Ballarat at the same venue last Sunday.
Coach Harris indicated this week that each of the players, from Brock McLean through to the Fothergill-Round Medallist for the most promising youngster Ahmed Saad, were suitably upbeat for the Boroughs contest.
“The 23 players we put out against Port will all have a crack,” Harris said.
“That’s what we’ve done in the past two games. We’ve been down in both and we haven’t won them until the last five or ten minutes, so we have that fighting spirit and we’ve just got to back in our style of play. . . if we do that to the letter then we’ll be in with a real chance.”
Harris alluded to the Round 22 match with Casey, in which the team was belted by 100 points, as the pivotal moment for the Ants players.
“That game really forced us to look at what we’d been doing all year in terms of our style of play and our commitment to each other as a team,” Harris said.
“It enabled us to really break the season down and get a team effort . . . we’ve got that right in the past couple of weeks for long periods in the game, which has got us two finals wins, and that’s fantastic.”
At the time of writing, the final make-up of the Ants team remains unclear. As Harris explained, “There’ll be some travellers with Carlton (to Perth), which will impact on our side, and we’ve got a couple to get through injury assessments”.
“But those who make the final cut will be ready to have a go,” Harris said.
Carlton supporters are encouraged to support the Bullants at TEAC Oval on Saturday afternoon.
“The team really loves the support we get and obviously on Saturday the more support the better. It is a great opportunity to see the Bullants in action in the afternoon and then sitting back to watch the Blues in action from Perth,” Harris said, hoping for a big pro-Bullants/Carlton crowd.
Northern Bullants v Port Melbourne
VFL Preliminary Final
Saturday September 17
TEAC OVAL at 2:10pm
