WHITE CLAW HARD SELTZER ®
S PA R KLI N G WATE R W ITH A LCO H O L
9 5 C A LO R I E S
NATU R AL FL AVOURS
G LUTE N FR E E
THE FINAL WORD BY PETER CORNWALL
PAUL THOMAS (Central District) With fighting last-gasp wins against North and Port, Central snatched a spot in the finals for the first time since 2017. The win against the Magpies has given Thomas’s side confidence as they tackle them again. “It’s an exciting challenge for our footy club. We’d had a few results not go our way, so we took some learnings out of that and then to win close ones against North and Port was a really good growth for our group – our coaches as well as our players. We played at Adelaide Oval last year against Adelaide in Round 18 and I think that gave the guys who hadn’t played here before the want to get here on their own terms and play in finals.” TYSON GOLDSACK (Port Adelaide) Port made it into the finals with a draw and loss in the last fortnight of the minor round but it is confident of kicking on as the Power builds for its AFL finals campaign. “We’re there to support the AFL team all year but now we’ve made it this far, we’re keen to see it through. If we can win the whole thing, that’s what we’re trying to do,” Goldsack said. “Most of the guys who played last week we’re likely to roll out again. We’ll work on the areas of the game that worked for us and try to maintain that for longer periods. We’ll work on our structure and our game plan and executing better than last week.”
Central coach Paul Thomas and Port boss Tyson Goldsack.
Sturt coach Martin Mattner and Adelaide mentor Michael Godden.
MARTIN MATTNER (Sturt) The Blues play on smaller Unley Oval but they’re looking forward to getting back on Adelaide Oval, where coach Mattner guided them to flags in 2016 and ’17. “We’re looking forward to playing finals. We have played everywhere this year and we have also been training at different venues – we’ve trained at The Summit (Mount Barker) which is quite a big oval and at Thebarton, we’ve done that because we are playing finals at Adelaide Oval but also for a change-up for the boys, somewhere different. We can beat anyone, anywhere, it doesn’t matter where the finals are played … they just happen to be played at Adelaide Oval and this is a great oval.”
ALL THE ZING
MICHAEL GODDEN (Adelaide) Injuries have made it tough on Adelaide, which has been without a ruckman and missing a key forward and key back in the past few weeks but Crows coach Godden maintains the faith. “Absolutely (we can still win the premiership). It’s been challenging (with personnel) but we’ve been competitive and that is a product of the strength of our whole squad – our AFL side has had a good year and our SANFL squad has reaped the benefits of that. Our development players have been fantastic as well, those guys will get their opportunity (in the finals) and all year they have shown they can match it with hardened SANFL players. We will be happy with any squad we put on the park and be confident we can get it done.”
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HALF THE SUGAR ALCOHOLIC GINGER BEER sanfl.com.au
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