No holding the Devils

Rivals to give all in elimination final preview

CORIO will not take the foot off the pedal on Saturday against East Geelong, despite the fact the two sides appear certain to meet in an elimination final in two weeks’ time.

Devils coach Bridgitte Burns says her side would love nothing more than to reverse the result of their earlier meeting with the Eagles in Round 6, but said she would use the match as a chance to assess what has changed since then and what areas they needed to fix before the finals.

“I think it’s just another good opportunity to have a look at their side, which has slightly changed since we played them back in Round 6,” Burns said.

“They have lost a midcourt player, which has shuffled one of their defenders into the midcourt and they have brought in another tall defender. We were also missing three players when we played them last, so it’s an opportunity to have a look at one another and where our teams are at moving into finals.

“But in terms of holding back, I don’t ever believe in that, it’s just an opportunity to see where we need to improve before we meet them again.”

The Devils have come through a tough patch of games and are sitting in fourth place, equal on points with East Geelong but slightly ahead on percentage.

Burns said a 26-goal loss to ladder leaders Werribee Centrals last month had been the catalyst for a turnaround in Corio’s on-field fortunes, adding her team was ramping up its training as finals approach.

“That game we probably played well for 20 minutes out of 60,” she said.

“We had plenty of the ball defensively, we just didn’t put the ball into the ring, so we have gone away and done a lot of work on our attacking since.

“Moving forward we are just changing a couple of things which is proving to have a positive impact on how we’re playing. So we just want to keep building on that and we have been doing some extra sessions during the week to focus on that as well.”

Corio hosts East Geelong at Shell Oval on Saturday, with the A-grade clash starting at 2.30pm.