EFL Division 2: ‘Renewed confidence’ firing Boronia’s finals fight

Its final month of the season registered only a draw – but it served as a momentum boost for Boronia ahead of its finals campaign. Here’s why.

Its past month yielded only a draw – but Boronia senior coach Matt Clark believes a “renewed confidence” helped drive his group to a thrilling finals victory on Sunday.

The Hawks’ nine-point elimination final win over The Basin signalled the club’s first win since July 16 in the Eastern league’s Division 2.

But the last-gasp draw against ninth-placed Knox in the final home-and-away round served to build momentum heading into a third-consecutive finals series, the coach says.

Boronia’s Ryan White was best afield among a collective team effort in Sunday’s win. Picture: Boronia FC

Clark’s charges rallied from six goals down to tie with the Falcons following losses to South Belgrave (35 points), Templestowe (nine points) and Ringwood (75 points).

“Although we didn’t play well in the weeks prior, there were lapses in games really costing us with respect to the opposition,” Clark said.

“I thought our last quarter against Knox was super – we got to six goals down there and we were able to build a lot of momentum.

“I think we took a lot of confidence from the video review of what good looks like.

“It (Sunday) almost turned into a new season for us … it was a red-hot game of football, a lot of pressure around the football and both sides’ intent for the contest was big.”

Clark implored his group to bring “energy and effort” ahead of Sunday’s clash after it lost the toss and kicked against the breeze in the opening term.

A 15-point deficit was cut to three points by half-time before the Hawks edged ahead by a point at the last break.

“We really had to knuckle down and dig in, so I was proud of the guys with the way they started, and took the renewed confidence into the game,” Clark said.

Experienced finals campaigners Ryan White and Luke Hannon featured among the best while emerging talents Cooper Dunkinson and Nathan Hare also stood up.

Clark also made special mention of defender Harry Burgess who was “super all day”.

“The ones who’ve played finals before, they really shone early and set the tone for the other guys,” Clark said.

“It was really good to have those guys (Dunkinson and Hare) flourishing, they took their opportunities and there were some big moments in the game where I thought those two especially and a couple of others stood up for us.”

But the dual premiership coach credited the cut-throat finals victory to a collective effort.

“That’s the thing about finals, you need 22 players to all have their moment,” Clark said.

“I spoke to them after the game and individually I think everyone had a moment where they had to stand up and they took it – collectively, that got us the result.”

Boronia meets East Burwood in a semi-final on Sunday, August 28 at Mitcham’s Walker Park.