FOOTSCRAY has the ability to go all the way in the Victorian Rugby Union premier 1 finals, according to captain Allan Imo.
The Bulldogs sealed a week-one home final after edging out Moorabbin 27-24 in a last-round encounter at Henry Turner Reserve.
The home comforts should provide the perfect launching pad for a
side that will be do-or-die every step of the way in the finals.
“We’ll be hard to beat at home,” Imo said ahead of the team’s cut-throat battle with Power House.
“It’s become quite a fortress for us.”
The Bulldogs’ late-season form has the players believing they can
make a shock appearance in the grand final from the bottom half of the
top six. They have had some close games over quality sides during the
past month and proven they are capable of matching it with the best on
their day.
“We’ve knocked over second and third now,” Imo said. “We seem to be peaking at the right time.”
The Bulldogs are a highly structured team that is built heavily on
pods, a coaching system that uses predefined small groups of players
that assist each other.
Those clusters are meant to draw high numbers from the defensive line and create openings for the Bulldogs exciting backs.
“That pod system that [coach] Junior [Naufahu] uses is all about
condensing numbers in the defence and using our pace to punish them out
wide,” Imo said.
“It’s all about the execution. A lot of teams do it, but they don’t do it right.”
The fourth-ranked Bulldogs will host fifth-placed Power House in
the semi final at Henry Turner Reserve. Imo warned that Power House was
not to be taken lightly.
“We’ll need to step it up a notch.”
