The Maroochydore Roos are poised to cap a remarkable rise through the ranks on Saturday, when they compete in the Queensland grand final.
The men in green and gold will collide with reigning premiers Broadbeach at Southport, from 2.30pm.
This is just their second season in the top division, after being promoted last year.
“It’s been a good ride, the last 18 months,” coach Andrew Cadzow said.
“And it’s all sort of come together at the end of this season.
“The boys are very excited about playing in the grand final and they’re quietly confident that they are a show to win it.”
The Roos were elevated to the top flight last year after featuring in five straight grand-finals in the lower leagues.
They reached the finals in their maiden state league campaign, before bowing out in fifth place.
They’ve taken their play to greater heights this year, with some highly-impressive and gutsy performances.
The Roos snuck into the finals after a disrupted regular season, but they have seemingly peaked at the right time.
In recent weeks, they have toppled Redland-Victoria Point 81-71, Morningside 80-46 and Labrador 88-78, to win three straight elimination finals.
Those wins were all on the road and two of them were spirited fight-backs.
Coach Cadzow said their efforts should provide a huge boost to the sport on the Sunshine Coast.
“I think it’s massive,” he said.
“It was important that we took the jump, to go to state league level, but it was really important that we were competitive.
“There is a good junior base (at the club), and that’s put us in a healthy state and set us up for the future.”
The region is right behind the team.
Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson wished them well, ahead of the decider.
“It’s incredible that this is only the Roos’ second season in the state league and in such a short time they’ve made it to the grand-final,” he said.
“We wish them all the very best and hope they bring home the trophy.”
While it’s been a quick rise for the Roos, Cadzow said years of work had gone into their transformation.
“We’re all on the same page (at the Roos). The club’s well run,” he said.
“We were preparing three or four years ago to take the step up to the state league, and the league wanted a strong representation from the Sunshine Coast.
“We pushed our youth and our up-and-coming players, and we ended up with a young squad.
“Then, it was just about them learning how to play state league footy and they’ve done that a bit quicker than we expected.”
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The Roos have not played against Broadbeach this season, due to a mid-season lockdown.
But Cadzow knows what to expect from them.
“They’re similar to us, with a strong attacking style in the forward 50,” he said.
“The other finals teams we have played were more defensive, so we’re looking forward to playing against them, but we’ll have to be out our best because what we do well, they also do well.”
The Roos have some dangerous players at their disposal, including midfielder Josh Govan, ruckman Jacob Simpson and forward Mitch Scholard, who haskicked a league-leading 61 goals in 21 outings.
The trio were selected in the league’s team of the year.
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Cadzow said there was more pressure and expectation on their opponents, and the Roos were ready to cause a boil-over.
“We’ll go in as under-dogs. Broadbeach are red hot favourites,” he said. “They tick a lot of boxes.”
“but they haven’t played a lot in the last two months (while) we are match hardened.
“We feel like we are getting a free hit.
“We’ve worked our way through a very hard finals series and now that we’re in the final, we’re quietly confident.”
