Sunday Bell Park’s only focus

BELL PARK coach Luke Rayner concedes it would be a missed opportunity if his team was to exit the finals in straight sets.

The Dragons were beaten in convincing fashion by St Mary’s last week and now face a knockout final against Colac on Sunday.

But despite successfully using an old-fashioned spray to inspire a second-half comeback against Leopold last month, Rayner said the loss to the Saints had barely been discussed at Hamlyn Park this week, with the players and coaching group instead focusing on the task at hand.

“The approach has been that we haven’t spoken about it, haven’t mentioned it but obviously we’ll have some learnings out of the game that will influence how we want to go about our style of play this week and some focus areas for us,” Rayner said.

“But the idea was that we’ve been 15-3 and had a really consistent season in terms of our effort and it wasn’t there (against St Mary’s) for whatever reason but hopefully it was an aberration and we can move on.

“At the end of the day there is no point sulking about it, we’ve got to move on and get ourselves ready and in a positive frame of mind to tackle Colac.”

Bell Park was knocked out in the elimination final last year and exited in straight sets in 2015.

The Dragons and Colac have gone 1-1 from their two previous games this year, but the Tigers will be without their captain and key playmaker Ryan Monaghan for Sunday’s clash. SAT, SEPTEMBER 9 SUN, SEPTEMBER 10 SAT, SEPTEMBER 16 SAT, SEPTEMBER 23