Not all of Altona coach Saade Ghazi’s wishes have come true in his first season at the WRFL division 1 club, but he is not that far off.
Ghazi achieved his main goal of taking the Vikings to the finals, but has fallen one win short of his target of 10 home-and-away wins for the season.
Perhaps the 10th win will be reserved for a special occasion in this Sunday’s elimination final against Spotswood at Burbank Oval.
“It’s a good reward for the group and the club to make the finals,” Ghazi told Star Weekly.
“They won eight games last year, so you want to improve every year. Nine was going to be the bare minimum, but 10 would’ve been lovely.”
Still fresh in Ghazi’s mind was the previous week’s narrow loss to a hungrier Sunshine Kangaroos with nothing but pride to play for.
It cost the Vikings third spot and a finals double chance, when all was said and done.
The Vikings atoned in a big way on Saturday, thrashing Albion by 67 points and gaining the boost needed on the eve of the finals.
“If we did the right thing last week, we would’ve finished third,” he said. “We missed out on the top three by three or four per cent.
“So it was important we finished it off in the right way, and [we] go into a finals series on a positive.”
It does not get much bigger than Altona locking horns with Spotswood in a sudden death final. The two Hobson’s Bay clubs are long-time rivals, and that has been amplified in recent times.
The clubs faced off in the 2012 grand final when the Vikings got the spoils by one point over inaccurate Woodsmen. To add further heat to the rivalry, it was announced during the week that the Vikings’ 2012 premiership coach Anthony Eames would return to Spotswood as coach for next season.
“For us to progress and improve as a group, we have to win this week and then, as you know, you get greedy and want to win the week after.
“We’re in it to win finals’ games, it’s as simple as that,” Ghazi said.
Lance Jenkinson
