Coach Daniel Batson said the club was determined to capitalise on its string of finals appearances with a long-awaited grand final.
“It looks like a pretty even comp from second down to sixth,” he said.
“We’ve beaten a couple of the teams above us, so I think it’s a fairly open race for a spot in the grand final.
“I think it’s starting to get to the point where we need to make a bit of a stand and push further up, because we’ve finished second and third in the past few years and still haven’t made it to a grand final.
“There’s definitely a bit of angst around the club about us putting ourselves in a reasonable position and then not being able to deliver in the finals.”
Jeparit-Rainbow’s results this season have often been confounding, with a five-point loss to eighth-placed Rupanyup balanced by the fact the Storm is the only team to come within five goals of raging premiership favourite Harrow-Balmoral.
Last season the Storm was the only team to defeat the premiership Roos.
Despite a 118-point thrashing by Harrow-Balmoral in the last round of the season, Batson said his charges remained capable of competing with the best.
“All the way down to Rupanyup, any team can be competitive with the top teams,” he said.
“I think we’re one of the few teams that has restricted Harrow-Balmoral from scoring, and then we feel we can score a bit the other way too.
“We give ourselves a chance most weeks regardless of who we play because we are a pretty good team defence.”
Anchoring that defence is Simon Clugston, a man Batson said the Storm has ‘built around’ in the backline.
Clugston was kept to only five games through injury last year but has played every game this season and helped solidify a backline that lost Adam Schulz, Luke Werner and Tom Clugston to the Wimmera Football League.
Another Clugston brother, Heath, has also played down back, with Ben Marra rotating through.
Batson rucks to a tough midfield unit that includes Brad Hunter, Shane Maslin, Jakob Cocks, Jake Parry and Tyler Edelsten.
Cocks, Hunter and Maslin have all shown an ability to punish opposition teams on the scoreboard, but it remains key forward Peter Weir who will do the heavy lifting.
Weir has an outstanding 64 goals to his name in 2019 and will be the Storm’s primary avenue to goal, but another intriguing option, should he play, is Ben Warren.
An assistant coach at Sturt in the SANFL, Warren has booted a staggering 40 goals in just five games this season.
If he plays, he could single-handedly swing the result of a game.
But regardless of Warren’s availability, Batson said he was confident of the Storm’s chances.
“We love having him in the team,” he said
“He gives us another dimension up forward and another outstanding player in the team, but at the same time, we’ve had some great results against other teams without him in the side.
“It’s great to have him, but we still think we can make some waves even if he doesn’t end up out on the park for us.”
Players to watch:
Peter Weir
Has exploded in 2019 with 64 goals and was leading the league for much of the year before being overtaken by Natimuk United’s Jaydon Stiles in the final round. This came after Weir kicked only 24 and 28 in the past two seasons respectively. The captain is capable of putting on a one-man show in the forward line, with seven hauls of five or more goals. His best game came against Noradjuha-Quantong early in the season when the key forward booted 10 for the day.
Jakob Cocks
Only a year removed from under-17 competition, Cocks is already a fixture in the Storm’s senior side. He was the team’s sole interleague representative this season and is a classy ball user on the outside.
Brad Hunter
Has been a standout in the middle for the Storm all year. Arguably the team’s most consistent player, Hunter has played every game and has been among the best players nearly every week.
Simon Clugston
The key defender returned from injury this year and has been a welcome addition to a backline that lost some experienced players during the summer. The Storm’s typically stingy defence has not missed a beat, and Clugston has been a big reason why.
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