Saints thrive in space

Training on big ground sets up finals campaign

TRAINING sessions at Grinter Reserve — the home of Newcomb — have helped St Mary’s prepare for the expanses at Simonds Stadium.

Anthony Costa Oval is one of the smallest grounds in the GFL, but fears Simonds Stadium would expose the Saints have proved incorrect.

Coach Troy Mitchell said opportunities to train at bigger grounds in the lead-up to finals had given his side confidence it could translate its game on to the AFL ground,

“We’ve gone and trained on bigger grounds throughout the year, so we also keep that part of our game developing,” Mitchell said.

“We’ve spent a little bit of time at Newcomb and last year we spent a lot of time at North Shore, so we’ve gone and got ourselves on a bigger ground so we can get used to the spaces and opportunities to open the game up.”

But while outside run has seen the Saints expose Bell Park and St Joseph’s, Mitchell said his side had improved in the contested ball department.

“What our home ground has allowed us to do with the younger boys is actually learn to win a lot more contested footy,” he said.

“Although people might say we’re young and don’t have stronger bodies, they’ve been put into an environment where contested footy is a pretty common thing on our ground.

“You have to learn to deal with that. But the reality is they actually love to run and open the spaces, and they’ve got good skills, so I think it’s a nice blend for the footy club.”

Mitchell said the club’s depth had also been key to its success, with the reserves also set to feature in a grand final.

“You’ve only got what you can put out on the park and we’re quite lucky we’ve got such good depth at the footy club,” he said.

“Obviously our seniors are playing in the grand final, our reserves are playing in the grand final, and we’ve had a lot of depth in our under-18s.

“I’m pretty fortunate we can pick players from any sort of level and have a pretty good understanding that they can play at that level.”

Meanwhile, St Joseph’s will train on the wider expanses of Deakin University tonight.