Bulldogs coach, players desperate for Grand Final experienceSaturday, September 16, 2017 - 9:43 AM - by Chris Pike

SOUTH Fremantle coach Todd Curley is chasing his first Grand Final appearance as a coach with all but four of his squad desperate to reach their first one as well with the Bulldogs feeling buoyant heading into Sunday's preliminary final against Subiaco.

Curley is in his sixth year as a senior coach in the WAFL having previously spent three years at West Perth and now he is in his third season with South Fremantle on the back of a playing career that included two premierships with the Falcons on top of 118 games in the AFL with Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs.

He is about to coach in his third preliminary final in that time after a heartbreaking loss to Swan Districts in 2008 after leading by 35 points and then last year's loss to Peel Thunder.

The challenge now ahead of the Bulldogs and Curley is a Subiaco team who won 19 of 20 games during the 2017 season and who has played in the past three WAFL Grand Finals heading into Sunday's preliminary final at Leederville Oval.

As for his South Fremantle playing group, Ashton Hams (2005, 2009) and Cory Dell'Olio (2009) are the only remaining Bulldogs premiership players while Blayne Wilson and Josh Pullman played in Grand Finals at East Perth and Swan Districts respectively.

That is the extent of South Fremantle's Grand Final experience heading into the preliminary final, but coming off two seasons now of strong and consistent performances with back to back to second place finishes, and the pain of losing to Subiaco and Peel last year, Curley is confident his team is ready.

The challenge is obviously a significant one against a Subiaco team who had won 19 straight matches before losing to Peel in last Sunday's second semi-final, but Curley heads into the clash confident that his team is ready to put in a strong performance after beating Swan Districts by 80 points in the first semi-final.

"Our blokes are pretty proud as well and were disappointed with how they finished last year at the same stage. We are one-all so far this year and we were pretty good in the first game, and they were really good in the second game. We are looking forward to it," Curley said.

"We haven’t really changed too much about the way we've played, we've just got more mature because we were very young and inexperienced in terms of finals last year. We think we are in pretty good shape physically right now and we've done a lot of work on our entire program to try to make guys not only fit, but available. 

"We've had most blokes available for most of the year both this year and last but we're probably a bit better placed physically going into the prelim this year than last. 

"The great thing about finals footy is that you qualify and then once you get there, it's about who wins on the day and not ladder positions or anything like that. We've had one where we weren’t that great and one where we were pretty good, and now we have to come out to play on Sunday."

Curley was left disappointed with much of his team's performance following the 18-point qualifying final loss to Peel Thunder at qualifying final.

He walked away feeling the majority of his players didn’t play to their potential and to the standards set during the season, but that all changed last Sunday in the 80-point victory against Swan Districts to give them a chance in this Sunday's preliminary final.

It all started in the midfield with reigning fairest and best winner Shane Hockey delivering an outstanding performance as an in-and-under midfielder while then in the forward-line, Blaine Johnson and Ben Saunders were at their best applying pressure and combined for seven goals.

"I thought he (Hockey) really led us and especially in the second quarter he got us going. He was important for us but it's no real secret that we play well when we have close to 22 contributors and we were pretty close to getting that," he said.

"Their (forwards) work rate is what probably let them down a little bit last week and they certainly moved better and played their role better this week. 

"In the end if you do that, you all tend to chip in on the scoreboard if you just do the team thing and work hard. They created space for each other, competed well and pressured well so it was strong."

One player who has had an up and down season but who in recent weeks has grabbed his opportunities with both hands and was brilliant against Swan Districts last Sunday is Zac Strom.

Having found his feet at league level originally as a key defender, he moved into a role as a hard-leading centre half-forward at the start of 2016 who would then do some work as a back up ruckman.

That is the role he again did for the majority of 2017, but when he lost some form he went back to spend some time in the reserves.

But he responded to that well and never dropped his head and now has returned to the league side as a key defender. Last Sunday he did tremendously shutting down Swan Districts' Ricky Cary and he will get another big job this week against one of Subiaco's key forward targets.

"It's a funny one isn’t it when three or four weeks ago he was playing in the reserves and his form had dropped away as a forward and pinch-hit ruck. But he got an opportunity at the last minute and his last three or four games he's come in to play key back and has been really strong for us," he said.

"It's a great lesson in resilience and it shows you just have to keep coming to do the work because you never know when a chance is going to come, and then when it does come grab it with everything you've got. I think he's been pretty strong."

Strom provides a great example to those in the South Fremantle reserves team who have had a dominant season to qualify already for the Grand Final under first-year coach Paul Litherland.

The Strom example shows that if they keep performing at a high level and working hard, an opportunity can always pop up for them again.

With the quality in that team like Brendan Verrier, Jake Florenca, Jacob Dragovich, Jarrod Parry, Josh Pullman, Brandon Donaldson and others last week in the second semi-final win over Subiaco, all of them should remain hopeful of a league chance opening up.

"It's fantastic to have that depth and the reserves boys played super this week with a really good, strong brand of footy to move into the Grand Final," Curley said.

"We had some guys put up their hand too so we'll have a look at them and go to selection this week and look at what we need against Subi. We'll pick a team that we think gives us the best chance to beat them."