Hawks and Gulls ready to run it back

BARWON Heads and Drysdale are counting down the hours until they get to run it back on Saturday in the Bellarine Football League’s Preliminary Final.

Having already faced each other in the first qualifying final, Drysdale is eager to even the score after the Hawks went down to the Seagulls 96-110.

Hawks captain Mitch McGuire said his side’s loss in week 1 came with takeaways that can hopefully provide solutions at Grinter Reserve.

“There’s always lessons to be learned during a loss.

“We’ll adjust a few things, we know what we need to work on, which we tried against Modewarre and in training, so we’ll give it a red-hot crack next time around.”

Drysdale had trouble keeping “a good spread at stoppages” and were “a bit slow transitioning from attack to defence” against Barwon Heads last time out, but the talented group coach Ben Carmichael commands is more than capable of reversing its fortunes in week 3.

“This group is pretty special, and we’ve faced these challenges throughout the year where we’ve been able to stand up to it,” McGuire added.

“This weekend will be no different, of course we’ll be challenged, but I’ve got no doubt the boys will stand up again.”

The BFL finals have been anything but smooth sailing for Barwon Heads, going down to Torquay last weekend by a whopping 75 points.

Seagulls captain Mitch Herbison said Torquay showed his side the kind of mindset a team needed in a big finals game, crediting Dom Gleeson’s side with being “fully focused” and “on top of their game”.

Leading up to the first qualifying final rematch, Herbison understands Drysdale would want to get off on the right foot.

“We’re expecting Drysdale to come out firing this week,” he said.

“Last time could’ve gone either way but, in the end, fortunately it fell our way on the day.

“Our main takeaways from the Torquay game are just making sure we come fully prepared and executing the gameplan that we have on the day.

“We’ll be bringing the heat with intensity around the ball and making sure the chances we create for ourselves count.”

This Saturday’s preliminary final is slated for a 2pm start.