Hawks’ spearhead ready to roll

INVERLEIGH coach Mark McDowell says his side has benefited from a light week on the training track as it bids to end a 25-year premiership drought.

The Hawks took to the water on Tuesday night and trained lightly on Thursday night to re-energise after a brutal preliminary final win over archrival Bannockburn.

“We’ve come off an exciting win, so it’s all been about recovery this week,” McDowell said.

“We had a light session in the pool on Tuesday night and light run on Thursday night.”

Experienced midfielder Dean Muir remains under an injury cloud with a hamstring, with Ben Bouwman set to return in place of the suspended Ryan Garrard.

“We haven’t done anything to test him,” McDowell said of Muir. “He’s optimistic that he’ll be OK.”

Spearhead Jak KennedyHunt will play, despite copping a kick to the shin against the Tigers and being dogged by a quad injury.

“He’s 100 per cent ready to go,” McDowell said.

“I thought we gave him poor delivery early in the game, and that didn’t help him after such a lengthy break, but his last half was huge. “He was impacting on the game and he got more confidence as the game went on, so I’d expect him to benefit a fair bit for the run on Saturday.”

McDowell revealed the final make-up of the side could depend on the Panthers’ inclusions.

“We’ll go over Bell Post Hill’s side from the last time we played them,” McDowell said.

“There’s a couple of things that they might do. They may bring in Justin Tarr, (Jordan) Flaccavento or (Matt) Kelly, so we’ll see how we match up.

“If Bouwman’s fit and ready to go, he’ll be an automatic inclusion.” McDowell is expecting a red-hot start to the clash at The Gordon Tafe Oval, St Albans Reserve with two bluecollar midfields going head on.

“Like all grand finals, it will be intense pressure for the first five or 10 minutes,” he said.

“Usually there’s a few stoppages and a bit of body contact and it gradually opens up. There will be lots and lots of pressure early on.

“In the last final against Bell Post Hill we were a bit slow and we were chasing them all day, but when we played them at Inverleigh earlier in the year it was exactly the opposite.

“Momentum is a big thing and it constantly shifts throughout a game. We’re capable of starting well and so are they.”