"WE can knock them off."
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While the Bathurst Bushrangers made it five consecutive local derby wins in the AFL Central West men's tier one competition on Saturday, those five words from Bailey Brien show that the Bathurst Giants still have faith.
The Giants skipper saw enough from his team-mates in their 12-3-75 to 8-8-56 loss to the Bushrangers to think they can not only join them in this year's grand final, but beat them as well.
"We're still playing some really good footy and coming together at the right time of year. I think coming into finals we can knock them off," Brien said.
"They're a good footy side, they've been the benchmark of the competition for many years, so it would've been good to get a win on them, but we'll look forward now to hopefully meeting them in the grand final.
"Everyone has picked them to win the comp, so that takes a lot of pressure off us to play some good footy and I think we can definitely knock them off."
In wet and muddy conditions on Saturday at George Park 1, the Giants weren't able to play their usual brand of running football driven by a fast and fit midfield.
But they stuck with the Bushrangers and at three-quarter-time there were only two kicks in it at 9-1-55 to 6-7-43.
However, the Bushrangers won early centre clearances in the final term which resulted in majors to increase their buffer over the Giants.
Though the Giants still worked hard to reel them in, Brien said their awareness cost them.
"I think our fourth quarter let us down, our accountability in that quarter really lacked and they ran away with it. They had a few spares come back, we turned it over to them that whole quarter and they were able to get it out really quickly," the captain said.
"The ground was pretty heavy which didn't help, but I think we were just too keen to commit to the footy and were just not aware of them being out the back.
"I was pretty confident going into that last quarter that would could run over the top of them, but just a few skill errors and a few accountability errors really cost us.
"We were disappointed because we really did think this was a good chance to get a win over them, we definitely had the troops there to win. We just had to pull it all together but unfortunately it just didn't happen."
Sam Sloan continued his good form inside 50 for the Giants, booting five majors to make it 21 across the last three weeks.
Simon Kay also impressed up front, picking up Giants' players' player award.
BATHURST BUSHRANGERS 12-3-75 (Kolby McMahon 7, Hugh Templeton, Isaac Coldicott, Joshua Connellan, Matt Archer, Tim Hunter) defeated BATHURST GIANTS 8-8-56 (Sam Sloan 5, Bailey Brien, Nic Broes, Cooper Brien)
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