All eyes will be on Casadio Park on Sunday as International takes on Gambier Centrals in the Barry Maney Group Limestone Coast Premier League grand final.
These sides played each in the qualifying final, with Inter winning straight through to the big dance, while Centrals had to take the long road to the grand final after losing 5-2 to Inter then beating Blue Lake 4-3 last week in Millicent.
This season Inter have been miles ahead of everyone as they have only dropped points twice, with only one loss which happened all the way back in April.
Inter coach Tony D’Agostino believes this game will be a tough challenge especially after playing the Lions not so long ago.
“It’s always hard to play a team that you just beat in a qualifying final because now they know how you already play and they do not want to get beaten again and they will match up better,” he said.
“That will make it harder for us to be able to play our brand of soccer that we want to play and it will be really difficult.”
Inter boasts a line up of many experienced players, however D’Agostino believes some of the key players in the game will be the younger men who are looking for their first premiership.
“I think the players that are just coming into the team, or have been in the team for two or three years, will make the difference because they are the ones that want it a little bit more,” he said.
“Those players I will be looking forward to see play will be Seth Michielan and Tyler Michielan, with Seth having his first full season and Tyler now playing for two or three seasons as well as Lachie Charlton who’s been a rock for us and Caleb Casey who was probably our best player last year,” he said.
“Those guys will complement Matt Bueti who is just hitting some form with his hattrick last week so he’s coming into some fine form.
“The same goes for Sam Bueti who I have never seen play as well as he did, and Christian Cella and Dan Allwright are the two lynch pins for us.
“I think we have got the players to do it but we cannot go in relying on just one or two players because the opposition are going to try and negate those.
“We have got to find other avenues, we have had players like Cedar Sopha who have come to us this year and last week made a big difference for us so those players are going to be the ones we’re looking for to be that little five or 10% difference for us..”
On the other side of the pitch, Centrals coach Brodey Koop believes his team will be up for the fight this week despite Inter getting the edge over them during the season.
“They have had the edge on us this year there’s no hiding away from that fact but we have got ourselves to this position for a reason,” he said.
“We believe in our abilities and we believe what we come as a squad and as a team so we will be up for the fight and ready to go.”
Koop said he was excited with the squad he has that is filled with different age ranges heading into the grand final.
“It’s exciting, we have had a good junior program at this club for a long time and to see a lot of those young fellas come through and now playing some solid A grade performances we could not be happier with it,” he said. “We have got a lot of players in the squad that have won premierships in this league before so we know what it takes and everyone that’s got that experience is there to guide those ones that have not quite been there before through this week.”
Kick off is at 2.30pm at Casadio Park.
