Lions strike the balance

by LES EVERETT

SUBIACO won last week's WAFL grand final pretty easily. It was a predictable result but never a foregone conclusion.

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Peter German celebrates with his players after the WAFL grand final. Photo by Les Everett

Winning grand finals is a tricky business and Subi fans know that only too well.

Somehow you've got to hope most of your players have struck the right balance to enable them to perform on the day. They must be fully committed but also relaxed enough to play with freedom and make good instinctive decisions.

A bit of imbalance either way and the cause could be lost by a playing group either too tense not intense enough.

The Lions seemed ready for this year's grand final and that's the way it panned out.

Brad Smith, injured early in the last year's grand final, set up two goals and kicked one in the first quarter on his way to an impressive five goal haul.

The four goal contribution by Sam Larkins took the pressure off Smith and gave the Tigers an unexpected headache.

Paul Vines put last year's bad memories behind him in emphatic fashion by winning the Simpson Medal.

Any doubts in the Subi camp would have been erased by quarter time and while Claremont bobbed around bravely and actually got quite close early in the third quarter the Lions were always in control.

After the game I visited the old Subiaco football club social rooms and it occurred to me that the last time I was there was after the 1988 grand final. There were other signs of 88 too. I noticed the last premiership captain Greg Carpenter and the Simpson Medal winner Michael Lee and I'm sure if I'd looked up I would've sighted Laurie Keene.

Claremont now face the exodus of a band of loyal long term servants but coach Ashley Prescott won't need to look far for evidence that such a change isn't necessarily a bad thing.

From Voice News & Fremantle Herald

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