Henwood Park veteran Matt Menser says his side won’t be taking anything for granted against Young when the two sides duke it out for a coveted grand final berth this weekend.
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The Hawks ran riot against the Lions in their most recent encounter, notching a 6-0 victory that threatened to derail their opponents’ finals campaign.
Young bounced back from the trouncing to post three consecutive wins before clawing their way into the semi finals with a 1-0 win over Leeton and Menser knows it’s going to be a very different game on Sunday.
“We haven’t really discussed our last win over Young and it doesn’t really mean a great deal to us,” Menser said.
“Young have to travel a fair bit and it’s easy for them to miss players for away games, so I’m sure they’ll have a different side this weekend.”
Menser was captain-coach for last year’s premiership victory and admitted it had been a strange transition for him under new coach Ryan McKenzie.
“It was a bit weird at the start having a little less responsibility but it’s been nice just to focus on playing,” Menser said.
“I think we’ve come a long way this year because we had so many injuries and people coming in and out and it was hard to put a consistent team on the field.
“I was injured for a while too ... but now we’ve got 15-16 blokes available and we’ve also got Jake (Ploenges) back which takes us to a different level.
“I’ve played a few 90-minute games in a row now and I’m not sure where Ryan will play me but I’m keen for it.”
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