Sandringham coach Shaun Parton was happy to see his side win through to Sunday’s Grand Final against South Melbourne, but is interested to see which version of his team turns up on the day itself.
The two teams have met four different times this season, with South Melbourne holding the edge with two wins, but Sandringham will point to a State Knockout Cup Final triumph earlier this season.
Parton’s charges enjoyed a dominant first half against Heidelberg on Sunday, and were unlucky not to have more than the one goal to show for it, but they struggled to assert the same level of dominance in the second half.
“If the game stopped at half time I would’ve been pretty happy because I thought we played pretty well in the first half. Very good performance in the first half. Second half was a lot more hard work,” Parton said.
“[There were] a few heart in the mouth moments but when you’re 2-0 up you can think well, you can just not relax but it just takes a little bit of that pressure off and then they did really well to get a goal and make it game on again.
” So it was a tense second half, but I’d like to think we did enough in the first half to win it, I mean we hit the bar a couple of times, had a goal disallowed, it really could have been 3-0 at half time.”
Parton put the drop in performance in the second half and in past matches down to a loss of concentration during games.
“I think we had lapses in concentration. I think we just turn off and when you play against decent teams who have a couple of decent players, you get punished when you have lapses,” he said.
“Like South Melbourne last week when we had one big lapse for about 25 minutes. Today we only had a few little lapses. That’s the secret isn’t it? Getting through a game without lapses.”
The highlight for Sandringham in the second half was Elaina Vatcky’s strike, where the winger calmly cut in and rifled a shot past Alice Ryan’s dive at the near post.
A late-season arrival from Box Hill, Parton had plenty of praise for the young winger.
“[Vatcky’s] been a great acquisition. She was going to stop playing middle of the year, and decided to come over from Box Hill and she’s been a great pickup for us,” he said.
“[She] scored an important goal didn’t she? Hard working, good attitude. You can say that about most of our girls can’t you? They all have their moments.”
Another impressive performer on the day was Sienna Fogarty. The midfielder scored the opening goal with an impressive free kick, while making sure Sandringham’s midfield didn’t go missing.
“I thought Sienna Fogarty was outstanding personally, she was probably our best player. Forget about the goal, her contributions to the game were fantastic,” he said.
Looking ahead to the Grand Final, Parton felt the Sandringham squad were feeling the effects of non-stop football for ten months, with some players under an injury cloud.
“Christie Parton’s got a strain, and Elaina has been playing with a strain for most of the last few weeks. It’s the end of the season. We’ve been training since January. It’s been a long season, and they’re not professional athletes and a lot of them are carrying knocks,” he said.
“We’ve got a few injuries and a few knocks, so there won’t be a lot happening. Most of them are going to the gold medal night tomorrow so there won’t be anything tomorrow.”
On facing South Melbourne, Sandringham’s cup final win will provide belief that the minor premiers can be toppled, even with the recent defeats in the Major Semi Final and on the last week of the season.
“I suppose [there is a boost] psychologically. People know South have given us a fair old belting the last two times. We know we’ve beat them so you know you’re not totally just thinking we’re going to get smashed,” he said.
“People can be positive because we have beaten them this year. It’s good for the girls, they deserve it.”
Parton also has plenty of motivation to win the match, which is driven by a personal trait to be competitive in absolutely everything.
“I’m a bit old school, I want to win absolutely everything. Tindlywinks or table tennis with my missus I don’t care. You know that I want to win everything,” he said.
“It’s not just another game but it’s something you want to win. And I know how desperately I want to win it. Whether the girls do or not? Like I said, it’s which Sandy turns up on the day. We just got to get inside their heads.
The possibility of winning a double also excites Parton, especially in the circumstances. But he is wary that his side need to turn up in the right frame of mind.
“Some bloke said to us before we could do the double, that would be exciting,” he said.
“Which Sandringham we’re going to get? The good or the bad? The dark side or the mean side? It’s great for the girls. They’ve achieved a lot. Two grand finals in one year without a recognised goalkeeper, I think we’ve done okay.”