'Didn't have to think twice'; Silver hopes for premiership in first year back since '14

Last pulling on the Wolves' uniform for the 2014 Pascoe Cup grand final, after several years of being asked, Silver returned to the club as a player in January of this year.

"It was nice for the club to reach out, I've had family commitments and other things going on, but it just felt like it was right to come back this year and give it a crack," Silver said.

"They've been asking for the last couple of years and the time was just right, my kids are a little bit older and they're heavily involved with soccer and the Tolland Wolves, so it felt right for me and the family to get back involved.

"It's such a family orientated club with a really proud history, so I didn't have to think twice really."

Loving every second back, Silver said it's been a breath of fresh air to be surrounded by young players and older heads to keep everyone in line.

With a long preseason leading into round one, he admitted it took a little to get really comfortable on field again.

"It takes you a while to get back into it, but we had a very strong preseason, we had good numbers to that, and we've been training since late January for this," he said.

"We've been training for three months before the season started, so it's been a long year, there's no doubt about it."

With several players returning to the Wolves lineup this year, Silver's enjoyed his return to the field and witnessing the club rebuild after a rough few years.

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"The club went through a pretty tough period the last three years, particularly through COVID-19, they lost a lot of players, some coaching staff, so the club did it pretty tough and it's only really last year they started to rebuild and this year they've really found their feet," he said.

"We've got a huge junior base, a very strong committee, three senior women's teams, it's just a really strong club at the moment and that's showing with two women's sides in the grand final and the senior men.

"We've got a good thing going on this year, and hopefully we can get the job done on Sunday."

After starting the season strong, Silver said the second round of games had performances the team wasn't as happy with, but he is pleased they've done enough all the same.

"We did enough, and that's all you've got to do to make a grand final, you've just got to do enough to be there and then you can see what happens on the day," he said.

Pushed right to their limits by both Leeton United and Lake Albert this finals series, there were no easy wins for the Wolves to earn their grand final position.

"We did expect the two finals to as hard as what they were, it's not unusual for Tolland to take the long road to a grand final, so we're pretty happy that we're there and we'll prepare ourselves for Sunday," Silver said.

"We were talking about it last night but I don't think we've ever gone straight through, so we're accustomed to having to go the long road.

"Leeton was tough last week and Lake Albert really came at us in the last 20-minutes yesterday but we were able to hold on."

Under the guidance of coach Daniel Okot, Silver said the team has felt all season they've got the right squad together to win a premiership.

It's taken wins, losses, and draws through the year to get to the final game but he said their self-belief never dropped.

"We feel like we've earned the right to be in the grand final," he said.

"Hanwood will be very tough, there's no doubt about that, they haven't lost a game, so we'll have to be at our best, but we're pretty excited for that challenge.

"We're very keen this weekend to turn it around and get the club it's fifth premiership, so it's pretty exciting times."

Tolland will feature in three grand finals at Equex Centre on Sunday, in both the first and second women's grades and the first men's grade.

Silver and his Wolves play Hanwood at 4pm with hopes to win their first Pascoe Cup since 2012.

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