JACK Johnstone wasn’t even named in Sale’s best players after their impressive win over Wonthaggi in last Saturday’s preliminary final, but he was definitely the team’s match winner.
He set the Pies alight with some strong bullocking work and hard-ball-gets at the early stoppages, kicked a goal and totalled up 28 possessions on his way to a best-on-ground performance.
He’s quite capable of going forward and taking an inside 50 mark and it was noticeable he dropped back in defence during the last quarter to help see off Wonthaggi’s revival.
Formerly of Williamstown and Maffra, he’s a formidable talent, on and off the field, and together with several other highly talented midfielders including the ‘team of the year’ ruckman and Sale captain Jack Leslie, last year’s medal winner and former Port Melbourne star Shannen Lange, Jack McLaren, Cooper Whitehill, Jayden Allison and others; they have the ball-getting power their forwards will need to kick a winning score.
And it’s up forward that they have a potential match-winner in lead-up forward Brad Dessent.
Dessent has got off the chain six times this year kicking bags of 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, and 7 goals on his way to being named in the Gippsland League team of the year and he presents real concerns for Leongatha.
The Parrots have the big man defensive talent to go with Dessent, with the likes of Matt Willcocks, Jackson Harry or even Cade Maskell players that can be called on, but he certainly stands out as the game’s top power forward from either side.
With Jack Ginnane missing, Leongatha’s goal-kicking talent is more evenly spread, which can be an asset, but they may have to look at re-positioning Jack Hume up forward as a target, allowing Aaron Heppell, Aaron Hillberg and Cam Olden to get some clear air.
Sale has another team of the year player, Will Leslie, and Mitch Thaacker, to lead their defence, and the likes of Ryan Pendlebury, Kane Martin, Lachy Todd, Jack Mclindin, Tom Glenn and others to carry it forward.
They go into Saturday’s grand final with an unchanged line-up, as a team on the up but they’ll be relying on the formula that’s got them there.
Sale coach Jack Johnstone acknowledged this week that the tackling, pressure and defensive side of their game was something they really focused on against Wonthaggi, the previous week, after Power got the better of them on that score in the close loss at Sale the previous time around.
And it will be a focus again against Leongatha.
“We pride ourselves on being the best contested team in the comp and we felt Wonthaggi got us there last time so it was a focus for sure and will be again on Saturday,” Johnstone said.
“Our kicking to position was an area we wanted to improve on after the first final and I thought we did that but Leongatha had 81 per cent efficiency in that the previous week so we’re going to have to raise the standard again.”
We put it to the Sale coach that the two teams, Leongatha and Sale, match-up well in the midfield and have similar strengths forward and back, so will he let the game unfold before looking to actively kerb Leongatha’s potential match-winners?
“We’ve gone into every game this year looking to get the match-ups we need and we’ll certainly be doing that again this week against Leongatha. You’d be a fool if you didn’t pay due respect to an opposition’s strengths.”
You’ve got a full list and look to be hitting form at the right time. Does that give you plenty of belief going into Saturday’s game?
“Leongatha has got the better of us in both games we’ve played this season, but we’ve looked at our losses more as learning experiences and tried to come back the next time and at least improve on those things we thought were lacking.
“I think we’ve done that this year. Leongatha got away from us with five goals to one in the first quarter the second game and we were playing catch-up after that.
“And we’re aware they can get a run-on like that in games but for us it’s a matter of putting four quarters out there and that’s what we’ll be trying to do on Saturday.”
Leongatha, of course, as you’d expect from a team that goes through a season undefeated, albeit with some close results, has plenty of strengths of their own led in the centre by captain and two-time Trood Award and Rodda Medal winner Tom Marriott, himself a prolific hard-ball winner.
But, front to back, the Parrots have line after line of consistent performers who you would expect will turn up on the day.
So, can Sale beat the season’s undefeated side, and walk away with the 2022 Gippsland League Senior Premiership?
They certainly can and Leongatha will need to respect not only Jack Johnstone’s winning ways on the ground, but also his meticulous preparations off the ground, and be mindful of the likes of Brad Dessent up forward, Shannen Lange and big Jack Leslie on the ball and a wealth of lesser lights around the ground who showed their mettle in the heat of the battle last week against Wonthaggi.
