Experienced Coleambally midfielder, Chris Cerato, believes the Blues have ‘plenty of upside’ heading into Saturday’s preliminary final against the Northern Jets, and will back their pressure game to book a spot in next week’s grand final.
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After being rolled by 50 points by East Wagga-Kooringal last weekend, Coleambally return to Robertson Oval to take on another highly-rated midfield.
Cerato says they won’t draw up any special plans to limit the influence of the in-form Mitch Haddrill.
But he knows they’ll need to be ‘on their toes’ in the middle against the young Jets.
“They’re a quality side, the move the ball extremely well if they’ve got time and space,” Cerato said.
“That’s their biggest asset and they set up well off half-back with Declan O’Rourke – he hits targets and they go from there.”
Both sides have named an unchanged line-up, with Coleambally forward Jackson Painting set to play after a minor knee injury last week.
Cerato said the Blues paid the price for failing to take their opportunities when they had momentum against the Hawks, particularly early.
But he said they’ll go in confident having beaten the Jets twice, including at Ardlethan six weeks ago.
They overcame a slow start that day and stormed home with a 9.1 second half, despite being without Cerato and losing Mitch Carroll in the opening minutes.
Carroll’s quad complaint kept him sidelined until last week.
Cerato believes with the skipper and veteran midfielder Shane Pound both playing their second game back from injury this week, the Blues will be better placed.
“Shane, he’ll be better for the run too so we’ve got a fair bit of upside,” Cerato said.
“You could see last week a few blokes needed the run and we’re going to be better for it with the pressure and intensity of finals.”
Blues coach Josh Hamilton has built their season on pressure and cutting down the thinking time of opponents.
“Josh has been pretty big on bringing pressure and knowing where your man is – playing one-on-one and backing yourself to win it,” Cerato said.
“When we go away from that we seem to get scores kicked on us. And pressure goes a long way to winning finals.”
Cerato, 32, is thrilled to be playing finals for the first time since 2010, when Turvey Park finished runners-up in the Riverina League.
The former Bulldogs coach, who spent last season at Griffith, said he’s thrived on the atmosphere at the Farrer League club.
“It’s been great, I’ve loved it,” he said.
“It’s just one of them clubs, a good little country club, and everyone goes out of their way to help you.”
