SATURDAY will mark the first Coates Talent League Grand Final which features Greater Western Victoria (GWV) since 1997. Back then, the competition was called the TAC Cup, the Rebels were under the North Ballarat banner, and Adam Goodes was best afield in the region’s only premiership to date.

Now, under supercoach David Loader, GWV will look to add to its trophy cabinet with a meeting against two-time reigning premiers, Sandringham Dragons. Plenty of “heavy lifting” has gone into getting the Rebels back to the big dance, which in itself is an achievement which marks “reward for effort”.

Like many of the Country regions, GWV faces its challenges each year but continues to produce AFL level talent. From having restricted access to their home base, to only being able to train together once a week and not having a weights room, there are factors which work against such success.

That’s not to mention the injury toll the region suffered early this season. Star prospect Sam Lalor remains sidelined for the decider, though the Rebels will likely still have a half-dozen Vic Country representatives available to them for their clash at IKON Park.

By making the Grand Final alone, Loader says he couldn’t be more proud of his playing group for proving “things are possible if you work hard enough.”

“It’s been an interesting year for us because we had a lot of higher end talent that didn’t play in the first half, three quarters of the year,” Loader explained. “When we started to get them back, we sort of started to see what we were capable of as a group.

“The boys over the last month have been outstanding. What they’ve been able to do in tough circumstances, a lot of travel, a lot of going away and putting in enormous miles to get to this point. It’s been awesome.”

Having finished the home-and-away campaign in 11th, GWV was the second-bottom seed in the Country conference. While Loader says there wasn’t a particular “point in time” that spurred his side’s postseason run, hard work and regaining top talent have culminated in a decisive three-game win streak.

“We had a great chat after a game about five weeks ago,” Loader said. “We just said, ‘look, let’s just aim to beat everyone we play from here on in’.

“The boys have really grabbed the way we want to move the ball and structure up, and they’re playing what I consider quite an exciting brand of footy on the back of the learning in training all year.”

The biggest test yet is Dragon-shaped. GWV has not faced Sandringham since Round 12 2022, but Loader is all to familiar with the region’s top-end prospects. Still, he maintains the Rebels will be focussing on their own strengths in the lead-up to Saturday.

“We’ve obviously got to be at our very, very best against a hugely talented opposition,” he said. “We’ll be focussing a lot on us. We could get carried away with concentrating on Sandringham and all their great players and you might lose focus of what our boys can do.

“We’ll be concentrating on how we can play, what’s possible for us as a team… we’ll structure up as well as we possibly can, make sure we try to play our brand of footy and get our ball movement going to give ourselves an opportunity to score.”

Tasked with identifying a potential big game player or difference maker, the Rebels mentor said there could be “eight to 10” different squad members who fit the bill.

“It’s not always a big name that does it,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for every one of the [23 selected players] to have their moment, or be presented with one at some stage on the weekend.”

As for team selection, Wednesday night’s training session proved a key litmus test for a few players who may have been carrying niggles. Given that and the different dimensions of IKON Park, Loader said the selection committee would be taking a few potential changes into consideration.

The 2024 Coates Talent League Boys Grand Final bounces down at 1:15pm at IKON Park. The girls decider between Oakleigh Chargers and Eastern Ranges gets underway at 10:45am. Entry to both games is free and they will be broadcast live via the AFL website and Coates Talent League app.