Fired by defeat, Southside chase triple glory

SOUTHSIDE coach Dion Readman expects his side to be far slicker and fine-tuned for tonight’s grand final against Edge Hill.

The Comets were beaten 1-0 by the Tigers in a qualifying final two weeks ago and the coach said lessons had been learnt from that performance.

“We just weren’t sharp that night. We’ve been a lot better since then,” he said.

“Our last couple of weeks have been great on the track and we were very good against Marlin Coast.

“If anything we’re better off from losing that qualifying final and getting some extra game time.”

Southside has grand plans to win three trophies this year.

The Comets wrapped up the premiership for finishing on top and want to add grand final and Crad Evans trophies to the collections.

“Our club has never won all three before so it would be a great achievement,” Readman said yesterday.

“But we can’t look too far ahead because we were outplayed by Edge Hill last time.

“I watched the video of that game last night and we had our chances and just couldn’t take them, whereas they had their chances and slotted them.”

Readman paid tribute to his opposing coach Paul Fitzgerald for getting the Tigers into the big dance.

“In my opinion he’s clearly the coach of the year,” he said.

“He has taken them from the bottom into a grand final.

“He plays a simple game plan and they’ve all bought in.

“More importantly, he’s brought discipline to them and that is making a difference.”

Readman said he expected Edge Hill to try and play defensively against his side, but predicted plenty of counterattacking football.