Malaxos hopes Sharks keep winning on back of strong leadersFriday, September 12, 2014 - 11:29 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Fremantle coach Steve Malaxos credits the belief and determination of his leadership group for a stunning first semi-final comeback against Swan Districts and now he hopes they can earn another crack at a grand final in 2014.

Even though East Fremantle was finishing with a strong breeze at home last Sunday against Swan Districts, it did appear a bridge too far to make up a 30-point deficit to keep their season alive.

However, the Sharks delivered a remarkable nine-goal to nil final quarter to end up winning by 23 points and book a place in this Sunday's preliminary final against Subiaco at Leederville's Medibank Stadium.

Malaxos put the faith in his senior players in the final quarter with Rob Young playing the entire quarter in the ruck while Mark McGough and Rory O'Brien led from the front and defender Andrew Stephen even went forward to kick two crucial goals.

With Steven Dodd already having announced that 2014 is his last season and McGough, O'Brien, Young and Brett Peake nearing the end as well, Malaxos hopes the Sharks win on Sunday so they get a chance at that elusive premiership by making a second grand final in three years.

Malaxos credits the leadership of those players with leading the comeback against Swan Districts.

"It was actually a culmination of a couple of years of work to be more to the point. We have spent a lot of time on leadership and what to do in those situations, and the players have been successful at East Fremantle without that ultimate reward as yet," Malaxos said.

"They have been pretty keen to do well this year so it came together with a really spirited performance in the last quarter.

"That midfield group have been very good WAFL players for a few years now and one or two have had personal awards, but Mark McGough for example hasn’t even represented the State despite finishing in the top five in the Sandover Medal on a couple of occasions. He hasn’t played in a premiership either so someone like him still has a lot to play for and Rob Young equally.

"We put those guys around the ball in the last quarter trusting they would lift and they did, but we are going to have to get more out of some of our other players who were a bit down. We can't afford to have 16 or 17 players playing well. We need all 22."

Malaxos is known for his fiery speeches at the quarter-time huddles, but he actually remained quite calm on Sunday despite the position his team was in.

He knew that the wind would help East Fremantle's cause in the final quarter and his team also had the belief that they could come back from anywhere on their home ground.

"There was a couple of things. We did have the breeze and it was a pretty strong wind, but I don’t think it represented that difference. We really just lifted around the contest to get the ball forward and we converted. It was basic, fundamental football that we did really well in the last quarter," he said.

"I was actually pretty quiet at three quarter-time, maybe there is a message there. We have kicked seven or eight goals in a last quarter once before this year at East Fremantle Oval and we didn’t win, and that was against East Perth, so I just tried to show the boys that we had done it before on this ground.

"I just told them they needed to lift around the contest, play through the corridor and play on. They were the main things, but we also had to be mindful of not allowing Swans to score and it all went according to plan, but the players put it into action."

While Malaxos believes that the Sharks might be able to carry some of that remarkable momentum into this Sunday's preliminary final with Subiaco, he knows it will actually count for little once the game is underway.

"I think it was Ken Armstrong, the great Perth coach, who believed that you started one week how you finished the last and I take a little bit out of that, but really I'm a bit more basic than that and each game is different," Malaxos said.

"You can win in a variety of ways and I approach each game as though it has a different set of circumstances.

"I doubt there will be the conditions this Sunday that there was last Sunday. It hasn’t entered my mind that we will start on Sunday how we finished last Sunday at all, it's just another set of circumstances we face."