COLLINGULLIE-Glenfield Park will swing veteran Brad Aiken forward in Sunday’s preliminary final in a bid to rediscover their best form.
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The Demons will take on Griffith at Robertson Oval on Sunday for the right to play Leeton-Whitton in this year’s grand final.
After winning their first 10 games of the season, Collingullie-GP have come back to the pack a touch with three losses in their last seven games.
The latest was a 27-point defeat at the hands of Leeton-Whitton in last Saturday’s second semi-final.
Collingullie-GP captain-coach Luke Gestier has not reached for the panic button and is remaining confident ahead of their meeting with the Swans.
“The group’s still very upbeat. We’re keeping a positive mindset because we do have a double chance,” Gestier said.
“If you go the other way, it can turn pretty quick on you so we’ll keep a positive mindset and the boys are raring to go.”
Gestier identified the half-forward line as an area where the Demons fell down in last week.
He revealed they will push Aiken forward this week in a bid to become more dangerous in the forward half.
“Brad will probably float forward this week and give us another option to try and give us a bit of pace and nous around goals,” he said.
“We’ll look to have a few more options up there definitely, that’s where we fell down in the second half last week.
“We’ll put him through the middle as well, because when Jimmy Kennedy went off last week I thought we really struggled.
“Brad’s still playing good footy, he’s like a 21-year-old chomping at the bit and his attitude is fantastic. He’s a coaches dream, I wish I had 21 of him.”
As for the team’s overall form, Gestier is not panicking.
He said it was only natural that their form tapered off somewhat after such a dominant start to the year and is confident they will rise to the occasion now that they are faced with sudden death football this week.
“There’s a few factors that I’ve identified and been trying to rectify but in saying that, it’s a hard one, because it’s such a long season that’s the trouble you run into when you start so well,” he said.
“When you start so well, it’s like a marathon, so to speak, and it’s pretty hard to keep up the whole year and I guess, mentally, that’s the challenge in itself and it’s something we’ve been working on.
“As I’ve said, and I’ll keep saying, I’ll back our players in and back our grittiness to get the job done.”