Turvey Park defender Darcy Irvine now looks likely to play in Saturday's Riverina League grand final

Irvine left the field early in Sunday's preliminary final against Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong and Bulldogs coach Michael Mazzocchi post-match believed that the defender would be in doubt to face the Swans.

However days later it has been revealed that Irvine's ankle injury wasn't as bad as initially feared and he would be a near certainty to play in the decider.

"He's better than expected," Mazzocchi said.

"My initial fear during the game was that it was that ankle he broke earlier in the year and he came off quite upset.

"I thought to myself that he knows he's broken it again but the physios were telling me that he's just got a knock on it and it's really stung him.

"He trained on it last night and I've gone from after the game saying that his season's over to now I'll be really surprised if he doesn't get up and play.

"I'm expecting him to play 100 per cent."

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There were a fair few emotions flowing in the Bulldogs' room following their remarkable come from behind win against the Lions on Sunday with excitement being right at the top of the list.

Despite letting the side enjoy the victory, Mazzocchi felt they had regained their composure relatively quickly and were now focused on the next job at hand against the Swans.

"Yeah obviously that pandemonium after the game was big," he said.

"More the supporters, the players were obviously very pumped but it was more the supporters and the fact we got all three teams that won on prelim final day.

"I think the supporters were more pumped than anything, we sort of calmed the boys down a little bit and went and hopped in the river.

"Obviously the temp at the river certainly settled them down pretty quick and it was really interesting, they were like there's another job to be done straight away so I didn't do a lot really.

"We caught up last night and on Monday night and did a bit of a swim out at Wagga Swim Hub and there wasn't a lot of talk about the Ganmain game.

"They've settled in and they know this is what we've wanted is this grand final, disappointed we had to come through the prelim.

"At one stage it looked like we weren't even going to make the grand final there 39 points down with a quarter and a half to go, but to get there and now the boys have settled back in and they know there's a job to be done."

The Bulldogs played poorly in the opening half against the Lions and didn't play to their usual standard the week before in the second semi-final against the Swans.

But after storming home late against GGGM, Mazzocchi believed his side was now able to put their best finals football together for a full four quarters.

"I think it's actually taken us six quarters to get used to that finals intensity and finals pressure," he said.

"As much as I was trying to ignore it leading in, playing Leeton then a bye then Narrandera and then a week off I thought we could deal with it.

"But we certainly found out against Griffith that we were just off the pace a little bit and then the same thing with Ganmain we were just off the pace.

"Then I thought the third and fourth quarter we stepped up and it was our intensity and the ability to deal with pressure I think in that last half that really helped us.

"I am confident now because I think it's taken them that time to get to that pace and now it's like this is the standard that finals footy is played at and this is where we have to be at.

"I think they'll handle it a lot better this week."

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