Werribee eyes VFL grand final place against Brisbane

But not even the most positive Bees supporter could have predicted what would happen next.

Werribee will head into Saturday’s VFL preliminary final against Brisbane on the back of a 16-game winning streak as it chases its first premiership since 1993.

They finished second on the ladder to earn a double chance and two home finals at Avalon Airport Oval.

The Werribee coaching staff led by Michael Barlow and footy manager Mark Micallef have never looked too far ahead.

It’s a cliche but the Bees have been taking it one week at a time.

“The playing group and coaching staff have adopted a next moment mentality with everyone from players to coaches,” Micallef said.

“When we started 1-2 we weren’t sitting there scratching our heads worrying about what had gone wrong, we were confident we had been playing some pretty good footy.

“We’ve had this mantra since the end of pre-season, that there was going to be a stronger focus on the process and not the outcome.

“Sometimes we marvel at what we’re able to do when you consider we’re part-timers competing against full-timers most weeks.

“We make all those hours at the club count. We did a lot of scenario based work in pre-season after losing a few games narrowly last year.

“Those have all been important lessons in what we’ve been able to achieve so far.”

Werribee believes one of its strongest factors is its ability to retain players.

Throughout the playing list, there stars who have pulled on the club colours for a number of years.

They include the likes of Michael Sodomaco, Tom Gribble, Nick Coughlan, Shaun Mannagh, Matt Hanson and Dom Brew just to name a select group.

“I think something people might not realise that we don’t have one guy on our list that has played an AFL game,” Micallef said.

“When we sat down as a coaching group last year, we felt strongly about the core we had. It was about creating the camaraderie and mental resilience between the group, an area which has really grown this year.

“Player retention has been a really strong facet for us over the years and it’s helped us get to where we are this weekend but we’ve still got so much to play for.”

Werribee’s only other meeting with Brisbane this year came back in round one with the Lions prevailing by a point in a thriller in Queensland.

According to Micallef, the sides match up really well.

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“Our styles are very similar and what I mean by that is we both play tough, contested footy,” he said.

“We respect Brisbane a lot, they’ve got some high quality players. We’re fortunate to be playing at Avalon Airport Oval because it feels like we’ve got a 19th man when we play at home.”

Saturday’s game will get underway at 12pm.

Originally published as Werribee eyes VFL grand final place against Brisbane