WILLIAMSTOWN CYMS coach Mathew Montebello was a man on edge on Saturday, but it was not scoreboard driven.
The CYs obliterated wooden spooner Glen Eira by 197 points in the
Victorian Amateur Football Association division 1 at Fearon Reserve.
However, Montebello was worried about his best players coming out of the game injury-free for the start of this week’s finals.
The first-year coach did everything he could to avoid a disaster,
going into the game without players with niggling injuries and resting
his stars late.
“You always worry about those sort of games,” Montebello said.
“ ‘Puhie’ [ruckman Steven Puhar] slipped over at one stage and I
said get him off. Then Ben Gray went up for a mark and came down
awkwardly and I said get him off. I had Nic Holdsworth off and I was
trying to hide Jack Gray in the backline to make sure he didn’t get
involved too much.’’
The good news for CYs is all their stars came away unscathed and
will be ready to take on Hampton Rovers in the second semi-final at
Trevor Barker Oval on Saturday.
The CYs hardly put a foot wrong in the last round, keeping Glen
Eira to just one goal over the four quarters and producing the kind of
merciless performance you expect of a side with its eyes on a
premiership.
It had 15 individual goalkickers –Matthew John leading the way with six, Jack Gray booting five and Puhar four.
It was the build-up of play and the ability to get into good scoring position that impressed Montebello the most.
“We were measured, calculated and executed the way a team who finished second and is about to go into finals should,’’ he said.
A full-flight Tim Murphy was close to best on the ground on the
wing for CYs. It was a welcome sight for the team after the injury
struggles Murphy had earlier in the season.
“His last month of footy has been a clear purple patch,” Montebello said.
Finlay Adamson is another to shrug off his injury woes and press his claims for a place in the finals team.
The two stand-out sides of the home-and-away rounds, CYs and
Hampton, will battle it out for a grand-final berth and automatic
promotion to the premier divisions. They split their head-to-head
meetings during the season.
“They’ve clearly been the standard all year and there’s no
question about that,” Montebello said. “We’re going to have a fair
crack. I think we can beat them.”
