Little time for euphoria as focus turns to grand final

Our focus is squarely on the grand final at Subiaco Oval, where we’ll need to be better than we were in the second semi-final.

Our inaccuracy in front of goal against the Tigers has been scrutinised, but many of those misses were difficult kicks under intense pressure.

There would have been patches of the game that people thought were ugly, simply because of the constant rebounding, hard chasing and tackling.

The players should be commended for maintaining enough pressure to win the game, even though they missed some goal chances.

In the lead-up to the grand final, we’ll be breaking our training down to simple steps and not thinking too far ahead.

Co-vice captain Luke Tedesco will play the reserves preliminary final this weekend in a bid to prove his fitness for the game.

We think his calf injury would be OK if given another week’s rest, but we’re not willing to field a player who hasn’t been on the park for more than a month.

We’ve had to rule key backman Michael Pettigrew out of the side, after he was unable to complete the reserves semi-final last weekend.

It’s fortunate we have a week off as it will give Chris Keunen the opportunity to rest a bad ankle strain he suffered against Claremont.

Scans have cleared him of any serious damage, but he will be on light duties for a few days.

If we had to play this week, he would have only been a 50-50 chance. It’s a toss of the coin as to who we’ll be facing in the grand final. East Perth has had a great end to the season, while Claremont has been dominant all year.