Collingullie-Glenfield Park coach Luke Gestier says Leeton-Whitton deserve to be favourites in Saturday’s Riverina League grand final, despite the Demons’ impressive lead-up win on Sunday.
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Gestier’s men produced a polished display in the preliminary final at Robertson Oval, hammering Griffith by 10 goals, to suggest they’re building a serious case for a third premiership in four seasons.
But they need to turn the tables on the Crows, who have beaten them in their last two meetings. Gestier believes they go in as the underdogs.
“I think so, yeah, I think that’s fair,” he said.
“But we’ll go in like true Gullie people do – we’ll grit it out and do what we have to do.
“But I think we do (go in as underdogs). Leeton deserve the favourites tag.”
He was happy with his midfielders’ ball use against Griffith, after asking them to be a bit more ‘bullish’ but Gestier said they need to go up a notch against the Crows who have also had a finals win against Mangoplah-CUE.
“At times I thought we can still work on when we don’t have the footy. I think we are a little bit slow at times,” he said.
“But we’ll go away and work on that behind closed doors and look at a few things. It’s a big contest.”
A first-year coach at a club used to success, Gestier was as relieved as he was pleased to book their spot.
“There was a couple of steps – first of all, finishing the year as minor premiers and the next step was to make a grand final,” he said.
“We’ve ticked those two boxes now. The third step is obviously to win one but they’re not bloody easy.
“So we’ve got an opportunity. As I said to the boys, that’s all you can do is give yourselves an opportunity and we’ve just got to work hard now.”
Collingullie-GP have all three grades of football in, after a clean sweep of the preliminary finals on Saturday.
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It's a credit to the other coaches as well and all my support. It doesn’t just come back to one man or one person. It’s all buying in, being on the same page and backing the process.”
“So yeah, I’m really happy with how we’ve gelled and how we’ve worked (as a club).”