Proud Monaghan focused on Grand Final preparationFriday, September 21, 2018 - 12:47 PM - by Chris Pike

WEST Perth coach Bill Monaghan isn’t worried if Sunday is his last game in charge at the Falcons, all he's focused on is helping his players give themselves the best chance at beating Subiaco in the WAFL Grand Final and he couldn’t be prouder of their efforts getting there.

Monaghan has been coaching at West Perth since taking over from Todd Curley in 2009 and as he prepares to lead the Falcons into a third Grand Final in his tenure attempting to win a second premiership, he does so knowing there's a chance it's his last game at the helm.

He is already the longest-serving coach in the rich history of the West Perth Football Club and has coached more wins than anybody ever at the club, but the last thing he's focusing on entering Sunday's Grand Final against Subiaco at Optus Stadium is himself.

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Monaghan's sole focus is on preparing his playing group the best he can to give them the best possible chance of handing Subiaco its first loss of 2018 which would lead West Perth to what would be a remarkable premiership triumph.

Not only have the West Perth players and coaching staff had to perform through the second half of the season under the cloud of the club's future being unclear, but they also suffered a 98-point loss in the qualifying final to South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

West Perth responded tremendously the past two weeks firstly beating Claremont by 53 points in the first semi-final at Joondalup Arena and then returning to the scene of that qualifying final to beat the Bulldogs by 26 points in last Sunday's preliminary final.

Monaghan couldn’t be more proud of the way his playing group has responded to all the challenges thrown their way to reach Sunday's Grand Final against Subiaco.

"We've actually never really talked about it, what we've talked about is being able to control what we can control," Monaghan said.

"The conversation never really went to how this is about helping the club and all of that stuff. It's about playing the very best football we can. I'm not always going to be the one that knows what the players are thinking.

"I'm really happy with the way we've responded and we are happy with our preparation. Really what other people think doesn’t come into the equation and it's not something we think about on a weekly basis, and it's not something we will think about this week.

"What we can do is go out and play our very best football, and I'm really confident the players will do that against an extremely talented side. Everything is going to have align for us to win, we fully understand that, but sport is littered with underdogs winning and I guess we are an underdog. 

"If that's what people's opinion is then so be it, that's what their opinion is. It's not going to change how we prepare for the game."

The West Perth-Subiaco rivalry for Monaghan has been a big feature of his career dating back to his playing days with the Lions where the Falcons were their bogey side in finals.

But over the last decade Monaghan has been in West Perth colours and been through some eventful times on and off the field between the two clubs, and he's certainly noticed a genuine dislike develop between the supporter bases.

It's a little different between the players and that familiarity with one another is something that Monaghan feels could motivate both playing groups against one another even more.

"It's a real rivalry between our playing groups because our zones butt on to each other," he said.

"A lot of the kids go to school together, they live across the road from each other and whilst there's been some things that off the field make it look like there's a fierce rivalry, there's a lot of friendships between the groups. 

"Sometimes when you play your friends, like your brother in the backyard, it gets more heated than people you don’t know or dislike.

"That's real and supporters of West Perth and Subiaco have come to learn to hate each other. There will be a really good atmosphere and hopefully the stadium will get relatively full and it will be an exciting day for WA football."

While Monaghan couldn’t be prouder of his West Perth team for reaching the Grand Final, there is going to be some calls needing to be made at the selection table this week.

Ben King and Steve Potente were both late outs in the preliminary final last Sunday against South Fremantle with their replacements Tyson Moulton and Rudy Riddoch playing well.

With King and Potente available to return now and Moulton and Riddoch having made strong cases to remain in the side, there will be no easy answers for Monaghan and his coaching staff.

"Selection is one of the beauties of Grand Final week. It's really hard come selection but it's an exciting time and unfortunately someone is going to miss out. The two guys who came in last week I thought were fantastic," Monaghan said.

"Ben King had been crook all week and we gave him until Sunday morning but he just didn’t feel as though he was right to play. 

"Tyson Moulton came in to play a really solid game and when we told Rudy 15 minutes before the game, after Steve's hamstrings got tight due to a back issue, he was on his way to get a burger and didn’t believe us. But again he was fantastic. 

"Steve and Ben are both available, that's our take, and we probably don’t have as big a list as Jarrad and his crew do to pick from but we do at least have 24 that we have to fit into 22. 

"That's going to be really tough and in Grand Final week you really like to let the players know as early as you can so it settles their nerves. But it's going to be a tough week for a couple of guys."

While players and coaches often try to say finals are just like any other game, Monaghan won't be buying into that and he's already seen the level required for his team to rise to in order to win in September.

He knows now that it goes up another level in the Grand Final and he knows to win it's going to take West Perth's best effort of 2018.

"What I think you'll notice with good quality finals footy is that it's played at a different level than home and away games," he said.

"Our performances the last two weeks, if you look at the good AFL finals games, South's performance in the first half against Subi and Subi withstanding that and getting away with the win, it's just not the same. 

"We'd like to say it is, but the stakes are higher, the intensity is higher, the pressure is higher and it's sides who can cope with that for longer that will come out on top. That's what we are trying to achieve and I'm sure Jarrad and his guys are trying to do the same."

Monaghan couldn’t be prouder of the way his players have conducted themselves the whole season but especially the past two weeks coming off that 98-point qualifying final loss to South Fremantle.

Their performances the past two weeks to beat Claremont and South Fremantle to reach the Grand Final have likely been their best showings of the seasons and he hopes they have one left in them now in the Grand Final against the undefeated Subiaco.

"Whether we are carrying momentum in or not, I've been really pleased with our last two weeks after an absolute shocker against South Fremantle three weeks ago," Monaghan said.

"I've been really pleased with the players' performance over the whole year and their ability to separate what's going on off-field to what is going on on-field makes me really proud. 

"They deserve their chance to have a shot at Subiaco and we'll just be out there doing our very best. Sometimes that's good enough, sometimes it's not."