By Jonty Ralphsmith
For Pakenham, this weekend will be as healthy as the Youth League list has been all season.
Jackson Grey is a chance to return after a month-long stint on the sidelines which would give the Warriors a clean bill of health.
It’s the perfect time for it as well, with Pakenham kicking off its finals series on Saturday at Cardinia Life, 6.00pm, against Whittlesea.
“I would love everyone to fill the stand,” coach Braden Venning said.
“We want to get everyone loud and rowdy and supportive of the boys – there should be lots of people at domestic games, so get behind the boys as we look to get that elusive championship.”
While the men have been flying in the seniors, the youth league has also been having success, going 17-2 across the season – but one of those losses was to Whittlsea by nine points early in the season.
“We can predict what we’re going to get on Saturday, we know they’ll zone us for a bit, press us a bit, but if we can stop them in transition we’ll go a long way towards winning,” Venning said.
The coach is “loosely confident” for this game despite the negative head-to-head record this season.
Last time the teams played it was at Whittlesea; this time they are clashing at Pakenham where Venning’s men have lost only one match across the past two seasons.
Chase Page contributed for Whittlesea in that game, but will be absent from the side on the weekend as he has gone to play college basketball.
And Dylan Jenkinson, leading the league in assists, is firing for the Warriors, having missed that clash.
The Warriors are also three months further into their journey, with half the team new to the program at the beginning of the year.
“Our length and our ability to scramble on defence has been outstanding,” Venning said.
“While we are not the biggest team in the league, we have a lot of guys who can do a job and get after it.
“I think there is a lot of hardness in the group – we’re well drilled, we change up the defence, we never let them get too comfortable, and once we get the deflections, we get out running and it is hard to stop us in offence.”
One thing Venning does know is his side will have to find a way to stop Taj Pilapil who scored 27 points and got a game-high four steals when the team last clashed.
“They’ve got a heap of guys that can light it up,” Venning said.
Between (Michael Johns), Jared Small, Jake Barnard, Dylan, they can all check (Taj) but MJ is our leading scorer and has been phenomenal this season, he’s a stats-sheet stuffer.
“While we’re focussing on what we can stop for them, they’ve also got to stop us and we’ve got countless guys averaging good points and minutes in the last couple of weeks.”
Injuries have meant that depth players have been exposed in periods throughout the season as the side has relied on less experienced players to carry out important roles.
Tim Efunkanbi has started in the last two games, despite only having a year of structured basketball under his belt coming into the season, and his performance gives Venning some confidence if he does play a part in finals.
Cooper Lanting is another one with little junior experience who has been exposed.
The Warriors have proven a hard team to stop when they get on a roll in the last few weeks, having played six in a row at home.
In round 16 against Southern Peninsula, they won the last quarter 30-9.
The following week it was 30-11 in the second quarter against Melton.
On the weekend, they outscored Albury/Wodonga 24-12 in the last quarter.
“There’s a lot of confidence and belief about us when we start playing like that,” Venning said.
Get down and loud to support the Warriors.
