Wangaratta City FC’s division two men’s team have been quietly but assuredly been crossing off their opponents in the lead-up to finals, and they’re a chance of winning the whole thing. Off the back of an insane purple patch with nine wins in a row, the reserve Devils sit third overall and just two wins off top spot. Should either Alburys, United or Hotspurs, falter, the Devils could swoop in and win the league – even if they don’t, they’ll definitely be a handful come September. Wang City FC head coach Vitaly Leschen said a mixture of gun youthful talent and experienced older heads had provided the perfect combination for the ressies to thrive. “There are good players across the park, and I think that’s why we’re where we’re at,” he said. “On any given weekend, we’ve probably got six under 18s, and six over 20-25, so there’s good experience across the park. “Some old senior boys in Joel Van Der Leeuw, Lachie Campbell, Connor Delaney are probably the leadership team and drive a lot of the expectation around the boys, and in terms of young players, Zak Bouchier, Keenan Peruzzo, Fraser D’Agostino, Jacob Saunders when he plays are amazing. “I think with the twos, it’s much more appreciating where people are in life, whether they’re towards the end of their career or just work’s got in the way of their senior football, or if they’re young and up-and-coming and looking to get into the senior squad, you have that spread across the room. “It’s recognising that, and trying to best get a common goal across the playing group.” While the reserves are in a strong position to take home the chocolates come finals, Leschen said he would not be jumbling senior players into the twos mix to try and grease the odds. “One thing I’ve been big on, both in the ones and twos is ones football is the pinnacle, that’s where we as a club want to win stuff,” he said. “I want to win the twos, because we’ve got a crack at it this year, but I think it’s important to keep the squads focussed on the squads. “I think when you start shuffling teams around chasing twos flags, it undermines the importance of senior football. “The boys that have been in the twos all have been the ones who have set up the success and they deserve to see it through, and if they can see it through, that’ll be awesome.” The last month of football before finals sees the Devils at home to the 11th-placed Twin City Wanderers, before a tough road trip to Cobram, and finishing off with matches against the top two teams in the comp. “The way the draw’s worked out is we play Hotspurs and United the last two rounds of the year, which are the only two teams we’ve lost to and the only two teams above us on the ladder,” Leschen said. “It’ll be a good test for us going into finals, hopefully we can go in having knocked off the two best teams across the season, it’ll boost confidence. “We need to get the job done, we should get the job done, but we need to go out and make sure we tick it off before we think about next week.” The division two men take on Twin City Wanderers this Sunday, 27 July at South Wangaratta from 1.10pm, while the reserve women are in action against St Pat’s Gold from 9.50am. The senior men’s and women’s sides both have byes.
