A fortnight ago, Labrador stunned Morningside with an eight-goal opening term, setting them up for a berth into today’s reserves grand final, but Tigers coach, Tim Bradbury, knows that means nothing now.
“As far as we’re concerned, we’re 0-0 again and we need to reset and make sure our mindset is right,” he said.
“What happened (in the semi-final) was pretty special, but we need to make sure we get back that mindset.”
While they didn’t have to play on preliminary final weekend, the Tigers didn’t take the week lightly, with an intense session on Saturday.
“We made sure they kept on the legs because if we had the week off and didn’t train, the mindset gets a bit lazy,” he said.
‘We put a few ks in their legs and had a fairly lengthy session on Saturday because we knew Morningside and Palm Beach would be playing a game.”
The Labrador reserves have benefited majorly from the return of the Tigers’ list to full health, finally boasting a full-strength side, and Bradbury doesn’t expect any changes from their successful semi-final side.
“If they play well and train well they pick themselves,” he said.
“I’ve coached kids for eight or nine years and it makes no difference.. .you just train them and tell them what they’ve got to do right,” he said.
That semi-final loss will be fuel to the fire for Morningside, as they vie for back-to-back reserves premierships, coach Brad Lynn says.
“I just think our players and coaching staff went in expecting to play a side that we had knocked over a month ago and they had all their injured players back and they surprised us a little bit,”he said of the semi-final loss.
“In a way it did help us last week (in the preliminary final), it drove a lot of our senior lads and it gives some inspiration to younger players to play for something.
“We won’t let the start they had happen again.”
The Panthers have lost just two games in the past two seasons, including an undefeated 2013 year.
Lynn said this year had been a great development opportunity for him, his first season coaching at senior level, after an extensive background in junior coaching.
“I’ve learned how to deal with personalities in the way that you get all sorts in the reserves,” he said.
“Dealing with guys that are disappointed when being brought back into the side and keeping those guys’ confidence up.”
Lynn said his focus had been on development this season, with a number of U18 players coming through.
“Having a list like Morningside helps when you have the personnel that you have, with guys that would play senior footy at other clubs,” he said.
“Lakey (Morningside senior coach, David Lake) has taken me under his wing and shown what to do in situations and my job was to give him a list of 30-35 blokes.”
“I knew I was not going to have to do too much tactical stuff, it was just about developing the side, bringing in U18s (from previous years) and current guys, like Isaiah Edwards.”
QAFL and QWAFL Grand Final Day will be jam packed full of action and there’ll be plenty of coverage of it.
The BayFM Sport Show will be broadcasting LIVE from Yeronga from 8am-12pm, featuring interviews with players and key Queensland football figures..
The QAFL Grand Final will be broadcast live on ABC 612 and live streamed on the AFLQ website.
