BELVOIR found an unlikely source of inspiration ahead of its Provincial grand final clash with cross-town rival Wodonga – Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson.
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Belvoir’s Mick Spiteri interrogated former Eagles junior Jon Ceglar – now an AFL ruckman with Hawthorn – to find out how the Hawks prepared for the 2015 grand final against West Coast.
Hawthorn, like Belvoir, lost to its grand final opponent in the early stages of the finals series before bouncing back to taste the ultimate success.
Where Clarkson was plotting one group of Eagles’ downfall in September, he was helping another to premiership glory in March.
“I spoke to ‘Cegs’ last week and I wanted to pick the brain of himself and a few of the Hawthorn people about how West Coast beat them in the semi-final last year and then obviously went on to play them in the grand final,” Spiteri said.
“I asked him about what ‘Clarko’ said to the boys in regards to picking themselves up and how can they turn a semi-final defeat into a grand final victory.
“He just said ‘back what you’ve done all year and understand that you’ve been the best side all season’.
“We firmly believe we’ve been the best side all year.
“We bat as well as anyone and we bowl as well as anyone and ‘Cegs’ just said to back yourselves and have absolute belief and trust in the game plan.
“We executed the game plan to perfection against Tallangatta and I reckon we nearly topped it today.”
Spiteri, along with Nat Sariman and Mick Russell, has been at the club since it was promoted from District in 2007-08 and said it was a huge thrill to finally win a Provincial premiership.
“We were a confident and successful side in the District competition and obviously when we transitioned up to Provincial we started at the bottom and slowly worked our way up,” he said.
Russell said he had no regrets about standing down as captain after the Eagles’ semi-final loss to Wodonga a fortnight earlier.
“I’m absolutely over the moon,” he said.
“A lot of people have asked me if it’s a bitter-sweet moment and while I would’ve given anything to be out there, I made the decision I did because I think this club deserves a Provincial flag.
“Being part of a committee, you understand the work that goes on behind the scenes and this club has done a lot of hard work.
“The club is bigger than the individual and this is just a massive feather in the cap of our committee 10 years ago who said our juniors need to be pushed into a higher standard and therefore our seniors will play a higher standard as well.
“Many District clubs have tried but we toughed it out through the tough periods and we’ve got better and better and now we’ve prevailed and got a Provincial flag.”
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