IT WAS a relieved Leongatha coach, Trent McMicking, who came out of a meeting with his match committee immediately after the game, full of praise for the way both sides went about it on the day.
He spoke to the Sentinel-Times in the rooms afterwards…
- So, what did you think about the game today?
“Brutal. It was just a typical Wonthaggi-Leongatha contest-to-contest-to-contest, never give in, no one's ever buried, slugfest that was fair, hard and a really great execution of the game we play.
- Both defences did very well today. Do you have any particular credit for your fellas? Obviously, Matt Willcocks had a key role, Sean Westaway is always terrific back there, but generally the defences were both very good?
“I thought, yeah, they were super. Willcocks was huge. I thought Forrester was good on the smalls. And credit to Wonthaggi, their intercept marking back there, like our forwards were, you know, they just couldn't bring it to ground. Reid was outstanding I thought for Wonthaggi and Lenehan, I haven't seen him play that well before. They just were able to absorb all the forward time. We had a lot of forward time, I thought, and Wonthaggi’s defence was very good but yeah, it was just a defensive game, wasn't it?”
- And where in the end do you think you had an edge, not that there was much?
“In the midfield, just. I thought Jake Van Der Pligt was enormous. I thought Kim Drew's first three quarters were terrific. Ben battled all day and Justin Pellicano, I thought, when he went in there had his moments and obviously he kicked the first goal but it was just an arm-wrestle all day and somehow the luck’s gone our way in the last one minute with Reid missing the goal, unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us.”
- Apart from Aaron Heppell, you didn't really have an obvious avenue to goal there today.
“No, we didn't and I thought that was mainly due to their defence. I thought we had just as much, if not more forward half time, but their defence was terrific, and our forwards just couldn't quite clunk it. We didn't take many marks in the forward half and that was a credit to Wonthaggi’s defence.”
- You had a terrific performance from your reserves today and there were a couple of standouts. Do you think there'll be anyone you'll be looking at leading up to the grand final?
“Yeah, I think definitely on the way we went today. Yeah, Tallin Brill was enormous, Tim Sauvarin, and then obviously we've got Ned Hanily who missed today and comes out of a suspension. So, yes, there’s plenty to think about, an enormous amount to work on just to adjust to that style of game, I think for us, and we'll enjoy a week off again which is huge.”
