West Adelaide planning on going out all guns blazing in Foxtel Cup final against East Fremantle
IT was labelled a Mickey Mouse competition at first but West Adelaide has 100,000 reasons to go all out in tonight's Foxtel Cup Grand Final.
IT was labelled a Mickey Mouse competition in its opening year but West Adelaide has 100,000 reasons to go all out in tonight's Foxtel Cup Grand Final against East Fremantle at AAMI Stadium.
The substantial winner's cheque is huge motivation for the Bloods, who will share the winnings with their players.
"We get a bit of a cut which is a bit of extra motivation," experienced defender Daniel Caire said.
"It's a great opportunity to win some money for the club and ourselves."
A victory would be a timely boost for the club which yesterday cleared a $9000 debt owed to Australian Liquor Marketers.
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Chief executive Kym Russell denied a report the debt threatened the future of the club and said it always intended to "extinguish the debt" yesterday after a tight cash-flow month.
The Bloods have played in all three editions of the Foxtel Cup but never progressed past the second round until this year.
An upset victory against Port Melbourne at the MCG got the ball rolling and was followed by a grinding 17 point win against Claremont to qualify for the final.
"It's been a good experience," Caire said.
"This is the first time I've played in front of a national television audience and playing on the MCG was pretty special."
The Bloods held four players - Adam Hartlett, Scott Bricknell, Nick Homburg and Aaron Anderson - out of their weekend games against Sturt to give them an edge against the Sharks.
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"They didn't play and will come in fresh and ready to impact," West coach Andrew Collins said.
"What we've decided is it's worth winning for us as a footy club and we want to give ourselves every opportunity to do that."
Collins has identified a couple of players who pulled up sore after the Sturt game and will be held out of tonight's game.
But he's confident he has a team that can win.
"We're quite happy with the team we're going to have - even though we'll have a couple of good players out," Collins said.
"They've got (Brisbane Lions premiership player Richard) Hadley out - I think he broke his cheekbone - and a terrific young forward by the name of (Ryan) Lester-Smith.
"So they've got a key forward and a key midfielder out so it should be game on."
The game starts at 8.05pm at AAMI Stadium and will be broadcoast live on Fox Footy.
