Preliminary Final
Kahibah FC v Belmont Swansea United
Kahibah Oval, Sunday 3PM
Kahibah will host Belmont Swansea United in Sunday’s preliminary final to decide who will face New Lambton in the 2022 Northern League One grand final.
It will be the second time the two sides have played each other in this year’s final series, with Kahibah coming away with a tight 1-0 win in the qualifying final.
Kahibah missed their chance to advance straight to the grand final on Tuesday night, going down 6-0 to premiers New Lambton in the major semi-final.
Despite some glimpse of heroic defensive displays, the Rams could do nothing to contain the Eagles’ onslaught, with Joel Caldwell's four goals the highlight.
But now facing each other again only after two weeks, Kahibah coach Mat Moncrieff hopes his side can put in a better performance and strike some more luck against Belswans at home on Sunday.
"It’s completely different animals playing Belswans [compared] to playing New Lambton,” Moncrieff said.
“Playing against Belswans is going to be a hell of a lot easier than [Tuesday] night. Having said that, we got flogged [against New Lambton]. Hopefully everyone will turn up and we go with the right focus we had in previous weeks.
"For us, 6-0 doesn't reflect the game. In the second half, [New Lambton] were dominant but we tried some stuff that never worked. But in the first half we played way better than we did against Belswans, where we won.
“I think we match up a lot better against Belswans than we do against New Lambton, so most of them won't be too worried about the 6-0 defeat when we take them on.
"Kane Woolston and Joel Nicholson are the two targets [for Belswans] as they score a lot of goals, so there's only so much you can do for him. But the whole team and the type of players is the biggest thing we'll talk about this week to get ready for them.
“But on individuals, we have Rhys Tippett and a few other boys that can bury goals away too. We'll see who turns up for the day and who gets the rub of the green or bounce of the ball and win the game. I don't think there is too much between the two teams and hopefully we'll come out on top again.
"The only positive to come out of [Tuesday] night is that the club gets a home [semi-final] and we'll try and get all our club members there to support us on Sunday and hopefully we get on top and fight our way to the grand final for both grades."
Belswans' loss to Kahibah in the qualifying final during finals week one forced them to take the long route to a possible grand final.
One goal from Kane Woolston was enough to surpass a composed Toronto Awaba in the minor semi-final on Tuesday night, allowing Belswans to progress.
"I think anyone that was there [against Toronto] could see that we had a great turnout from the local community,” Belswans coach Mick Stafford said.
“They supported the boys well and it just shows the level of our club in this division. I'm proud of all the work myself and others have done over the last seven years to get us to this point. And I hope it continues in the future as it should."
Stafford continued on how experienced players can prove the difference for Kahibah, with centre-back Heath Kepreotes scoring the only goal in Belswans' 1-0 defeat. But a change in momentum gives Stafford more than hope leading into a potential fifth grand final in seven years for the coach.
"[The last game against Kahibah] was a funny one,” Stafford said.
“I think it was good as it snapped us into gear a bit. We've worked on a few things that we needed to fix. Our main focus of our structure is not to concede goals and I think we've been very solid in both [finals] games.
“We'll just go again. We've got momentum now, the boys are in high spirits and looking forward to going there against a challenging team in Kahibah.
"Like last game, the experienced players are key for [Kahibah]. They're good on dead balls and that's a threat we'll try to nullify. They've got a great goalkeeper but you can't do much to nullify that. We'll just focus on our own game, being structured, being hard to break down and hopefully we can score early and go on from there.
"We'll be full strength and I'll have a full fresh bench of the reserves as they've made the grand final and got the week off now. So we'll have good depth on show and they will all be needed in the match on Sunday.
"We're one week away from another grand final and just want to hope everyone can get to the game and continue supporting our club in 2022."
