Prized places up for grabs
MA OLYMPIC coach Gianni Rantucci has called it “business as usual” as the club scrambles to replace two strike weapons ahead of the North Queensland Football grand final.
The Mundingburra outfit, who will enter their sixthstraight Premier League decider against Saints Eagles South, were dealt a stinging blow at the weekend when bench winger Deegan Brook was handed a red card in the Youth Men’s preliminary final.
Brook joins Olympic’s right winger and strike weapon Jake Siandri on the sidelines after he copped a red card in the major semi-final win over Saints.
Siandri has been a prized part of the Olympic set-up since scoring a brace on debut back in 2017. He scored a crucial opening goal in last year’s grand final win and claimed a wonder goal in the opening round this year.
Rantucci will play his cards close to his chest this week in terms of personnel, refusing to reveal who he had tasked with filling the winger’s shoes.
“You will just have to find out, they will see who it is come 8.30pm on Saturday,” he said.
“We have some depth in our club and are working through a few different options. The kind of football we play means we don’t just rely on one strike weapon. If you look at the season goal scoring, you don’t see Mundingburra up the top but you do see plenty of Mundingburra players in the list. That is because we have different strike options.”
Rantucci said there was an opportunity for players to earn the spot this week if they put in during training sessions.
“That is not just a gauntlet I have thrown down this week, that is something I have been laying down all year,” he said.
“No one has been guaranteed their spot in this side. The guys have been training the house down this past week.”
While they had the weekend off ahead of the grand final, it did not stop the experienced coach from working his troops on the training field.
“Last week we stepped it up a bit because we had the weekend off, we k n e w we could work extra hard,” he said. “The guys are pretty keen and motivated after they missed out on the premiership this year. We have a chance to make it a three-peat of grand final trophies and the guys are keen to make history for the club.”