Falcons fight for top flight

GEELONG Falcons will name a full-strength line-up for the final home-and-away match of the TAC Cup season against Dandenong as they fight to win the minor premiership.

The ladder leaders sit less than 1 per cent clear of secondplaced Oakleigh Chargers, with this weekend’s final round to determine finishing positions.

“Ideally winning culture is good culture and we don’t have a break going into the first final. We’d love to finish the year with a win,” coach Daniel O’Keefe said.

“We want to finish on top; we’ve been there for the majority of the year and we’re only half a percentage in front.

“We play third and Oakleigh plays sixth, so whoever wins by the most basically finishes on top.”

O’Keefe said he had the chance to freshen some of his players in the last fortnight, with no plans to rest any stars ahead of finals.

“We’ve actually done that last week and the week before; we’ve rested up to about five players in total over the last few weeks and it’s actually turned out to be really pivotal in their individual performances,” he said.

“For instance, Tom McCartin, Connor Idun and Ned McHenry, who we did rest, played really good games last weekend, and David Handley’s coming off a rest this week, too.

“We want to get as close as possible to that (week one of finals) side. We’ll be as full strength as possibly can be.”

The Stingrays sit third on the TAC Cup ladder, and are coming off a narrow win over fourth-placed Sandringham.

O’Keefe said the Falcons faced a challenge on Sunday.

“They’ve got some great big key position players, some of whom played in the national carnival,” he said.

“They’ve got some good goal kickers and a couple of really top-end talented mids.”

O’Keefe also heaped praise on under-16 Falcon Cooper Stephens, who has been named in the NAB AFL Academy for 2017-18.