SANDRINGHAM Dragons are looking to make history on Saturday. The powerhouse talent region is gunning for a third consecutive flag, and to move level with Calder Cannons on a competition-high six premierships. What’s more, co-captain Levi Ashcroft has been a part of all three title tilts.

While the Dragons’ squad is stacked with talent – even barring an array of key players set to miss through injury – coach Rob Harding maintains the key to success will be the strike a balance across the whole team of 23. Expect Sandringham to show up, and keep showing up in each third of the ground.

“I think the even spread that we have across our group is really important,” Harding said. “We value everyone within the program and commit to doing everything as a team.

“I’d like people to see from our team a well balanced forwardline and a balanced defence. We really pride ourselves on our strength around the contest and our ability to work from contest to contest.”

Such is the nature of the competition, that several Metro-based regions like Sandringham lose a bulk of players to school and representative commitments throughout the year. Then, the challenge is to have the team jell once everyone becomes available again during the run-in to finals.

Having successfully done so over the last two campaigns, with Harding at the helm during 2023, injuries have made the task of settling the group all the more challenging. Still, after a 39-point loss to Oakleigh in Round 19, the Dragons have rallied to recapture ominous form.

“It’s been really different from last year,” Harding said. “Last year we were pretty settled through the backend of the year once we had our full list available to us again. This year we’ve had so many injuries that it’s taken us a while to work out exactly what our best mix is.

“Losing Luke Trainor last week and Jhett Haeata late in the year with a broken arm, Charlie Rozenes hamstring in the Wildcard [Round] game… Josh Dolan and Taj Hotton, Ted Clayton and Oscar Cheetham [would] all be in the mix to play or would be playing in this game.

“So it’s taken us a bit longer probably to work out what our team should be and to get settled, but I feel like the last couple of weeks we’ve been able to start hitting our straps since we had the bad loss to Oakleigh.”

In terms of the personnel available, there is no shortage of star power. The likes of Ashcroft and Vic Metro MVP Murphy Reid have proven their big game credentials, while key forward Harry Armstrong played a key role in deciding this year’s Under 18 National Championships final.

Harding says the strength of this year’s crop is its evenness, and collective hunger to “emulate the feats of last year and the year before”. It’s no surprise, then, that narrowing down the list of potential game-winners is an arduous task.

“I think we have a number (of big game players),” Harding said. “Murphy Reid and Harrison Oliver, these guys are high level talents, they perform well in big games. We saw Bailey McKenzie kick six goals on the weekend in the prelim final.

“The beauty of our group is we have a number of players that can step up and do that. Some days it’s your day and some days it’s not. Our program is not built around one player… we don’t favour one player over another.

“Any one of them could bob up and have the big standout day, but there might be others who maybe don’t have as many stats, but still play a vital role for what we’re trying to achieve.

“I look at a guy like Zach Travers, who plays the wing as well as any player in the Coates League, and he does his role consistently week in, week out, the same way Aaron Taylor does for us. They don’t always get as much public recognition as they should. But they’re high level players, high level talents and they’re playing an important part for the team.”

Another quick of the competition is that Sandringham and its Grand Final adversary, Greater Western Victoria (GWV), have not locked horns since Round 12, 2022. After pouring over vision of the Rebels’ preliminary final win, Harding was full of praise and expects a “strong challenge”.

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“It’s a fantastic story and super credit to David Loader for the job he’s done with this group this year,” he said. “You only have to look at the quality of the opponents that they’ve beaten over the last three weeks.

“To go down to Tassie and beat them, to beat Geelong who were on top of the ladder for a fair chunk of this year, and then on the weekend to knock off Oakleigh, it’s just an enormous credit to the Rebels’ program.

“They work hard, they defend really aggressively and I just love how they compete in the contest and keep turning up.”

The Dragons essentially came out of their preliminary final unscathed, for the first time in a few weeks, but Harding declared the “famous last words” of an unchanged side would not be uttered just yet.

“There’s 23 guys that will get picked but outside of the guys that are injured, there’s another 10-15 [players] that I’d be more than comfortable playing in our side,” he said.

“We feel that there’s a large number of our squad would be able to go out in a Coates League Grand Final and perform to the level we expect, so that’s made selection very tough for the coaching staff.”

Sandringham’s push for a third consecutive premiership reaches its crescendo at IKON Park on Saturday afternoon, starting from 1:15pm. The game is part of a double-header, with the girls decider between Oakleigh Chargers and Eastern Ranges bouncing down at 10:45am. Entry to both games is free and they will be broadcast live via the AFL website and Coates Talent League app.