There aren’t too many players who are more accustomed to a grand final appearance than Kyabram forward Tom Holman.
The talented Bomber is days away from fronting up in his sixth Goulburn Valley League senior decider, 10 years on from his first in 2013.
Holman will don the long sleeves and boots and front up at centre-half forward for the Bombers in Sunday’s clash against rival Echuca at Deakin Reserve.
“The build-up is a bit different; it’s the most important game of the year and there’s more emphasis obviously on the outcome,” Holman said
“Then you have got family and friends wishing you luck and all of the build-up, but once the game starts it’s like any other.”
“Excited is probably the word to use, some people don’t even get the chance to play in a grand final.
“I’m pretty rapt for the group; considering how tough the past couple of years have been and so it’s good to see everyone get rewarded with a grand final.”
Holman highlighted that this season had been different to others during his time at Bomberland.
An influx of new faces, an impressive winning streak, along with some disappointing results, has resulted in a peculiar year according to Holman.
“Yeah it’s been an interesting one. We had a few new faces and so it took us a while to gel,” he said.
“And then we had a good little patch of wins in a row which was followed by two poor losses to Echuca and Bears. It was a tough couple of weeks, but we had a bit of a reset, re-analysed a few things and I feel we have come out better on the other side.”
Holman’s year hasn’t been strange at all.
The multiple-premiership-winning Bomber has chalked up another classy season.
From his 20 appearances Holman has registered 32 goals and averages 7.4 score involvements, 2.2 contested marks and 4.2 tackles per game.
He is ranked second in the competition for tackles inside forward 50.
Not a bad feat for the athletic key tall.
“My year hasn’t been too bad. It’s a different role compared to the last few years where we needed a bit of a target with Mango (Brad Mangan) and Kyle (Mueller) out injured last year.
“More of an emphasis to keep the ball inside 50 and allow our skilful players like Dipper (Anthony DePasquale) and Kyle to get more opportunities to score with more and more stoppages they get. The more I can try and lock the ball in the better.”
Holman revealed his side would relish using the underdog tag against the heavily fancied Murray Bombers.
“The main message (from Paulo) is just embrace the hype and do your job and make sure everyone is pulling the rope,” Holman said.
“We know it’s going to be a pretty tough battle. They have been the benchmark for two or three years now, expecting a pretty tough day but we’re prepared. In the semi we let them slip away but we fought back and then last weekend we showed we can bounce back and that showed a bit of maturity.”