By JARROD POTTER
THEY’VE booked their place in the Gridiron Victoria semi-finals, but a win on Sunday would give the Berwick Diamonds gridiron team an added boost heading into their first finals’ campaign.
The Diamonds, which are only in their first season, have pushed their way up to second on the Gridiron Victoria ladder with its bruising defence and well-rounded offence dominant in its four matches this year.
The Endeavour Hills-based team faces last-placed Ballarat Kestrels on Sunday afternoon at Sydney Pargeter Reserve to help book their place in the VicBowl.
“I’m very, very happy with how the team is developing and progressing so far,” Diamonds coach Jamie Stafford said.
“I knew going in with the actual talent we had that we would do well, but didn’t know we’d do this well, but that’s a credit to the girls.
“They’re very coachable and learn things quickly and they pick up really quickly and don’t need to coddle them too much with teaching them the game.”
While it is a bit of a lopsided battle, with the Ballarat side down on player numbers and yet to win a game, Stafford said there wouldn’t be anything too crazy from the Diamonds as they work on expanding the playbook.
“Nothing too outrageous but it gives us a chance to try some formations we haven’t tried yet,” Stafford said.
“We’re aware the team we’re playing is struggling, but still need to take care of business so to speak and implement a few things we haven’t tried this year and give different players a run in different positions.”
“Joanna Rashleigh (back-up quarterback) will get some downs this week and team captain Cat Bouwhuis has played as a bit of wide receiver last week and did well that’s something we could continue to explore and have her on both sides of the ball.”
Stafford encouraged anyone interested in gridiron to head along on Sunday and watch the two Berwick teams finish off the regular season.
The Diamonds will face Ballarat at 12.45pm on Sunday before the Berwick Miners juniors clash with the Pakenham Silverbacks in their final match of the season, after missing the finals with a 2-4 record not good enough to make the VicBowl finals.
