One of Wangaratta’s rising crop of youngsters is tipped to carry the biggest job in Saturday’s qualifying final.
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Tagger Will Reilly is expected to tackle Yarrawonga on-baller Mark Whiley at the WJ Findlay Oval in Wangaratta.
The 20-year-old debuted in 2015, but is having a breakout season.
“I started off as a midfielder, then (coach) Brendan Cairns introduced me to the role,” he said.
“When you win, you know you’ve done your job right.”
And he’s been doing it well all season.
Reilly has faced the league’s best, including Whiley and Albury running machine, Daniel Cross.
He was quizzed on which boom player was the most difficult.
“Probably Cross, he just runs, he’s probably the best runner,” Reilly said.
“He has an amazing fitness level, he’s got a huge tank on him.”
Reilly did what many think is near impossible when Albury met Wangaratta in round five – keep Cross relatively quiet.
“Many people say within the competition that Daniel Cross is untaggable, don’t even worry about it, but we thought he’s such an engine for them, that he gets the ball out of the middle, it was such a good challenge for Will,” Pies’ coach Dean Stone said at the time.
“Daniel got away in the last 40-45 minutes of the game, but really, if we were close enough, the damage was already done, we were already on top of him.”
Cross finished that match with 30 possessions, with most of those in the second half.
Stopping Cross will certainly hinder Albury’s prospects, but the Tigers have so many stars, it won’t necessarily torpedo their hopes.
Yarrawonga doesn’t boast the star-studded depth of the Tigers, so a big performance against Whiley is generally crucial to victory.
“It’s just his movement around the stoppage, he’s a really good mover,” Reilly said.
“He walks on air pretty much.”
Whiley is one of those remarkable players who seems to glide across the ground.
He doesn’t move forward often, but is capable of winning possession there and then making a defensive save seemingly seconds later.
Yarrawonga inflicted the Pies first defeat in round four, by 37 points, but the home team reversed that result with a 16-point win in round 12.
That kick-started an unbeaten winning streak of seven, one of the Pies’ best since it claimed successive titles in 2007-08.
The clash against Yarrawonga is the Pies’ first finals match since falling to Wodonga Raiders by two goals in the 2011 elimination final.
