Yass Roos staying ready for potential finals series

The Roos had a bye in the final round regardless, and their last completed match of the season was a defeat at the hands of the ADFA Rams.

It was a disappointing end to what had otherwise been a strong season from Yass, who finished second on the ladder with ten wins and two losses.

AFL Canberra confirmed that it is aiming to finish its competitions in 2021, and hopes to schedule a finals series if the lockdowns end within the next few weeks.

Roos coach, Jarrad Forlonge, expects his side to be in with a shot if finals can go ahead, but said the lockdowns may have hurt their aspirations in 2021.

"As far as finals go, I think we're probably disadvantaged," Forlonge said.

"There's no training at the moment, so it's hard to keep fit. Especially when two of the teams that we'll be challenging are the ANU team who are fairly well-drilled and probably more motivated to go out and train individually, and ADFA, and it's part of their training to be fit.

"I'm not saying I don't have faith in our boys to be out running during their one hour exercise period, but I think that could be our downfall if finals goes ahead."

Forlonge has already seen the impact of what can happen to a side without a consistent run of matches. In the lead-up to the Roos' last game against ADFA, they had only played one out of their last three games.

Though he said that wasn't an excuse for their performance, Forlonge believes the layoff certainly caused Yass to struggle for rhythm.

"With washouts, it meant that we couldn't train either because all the grounds were closed," he said.

"It was pretty hard. I'm not saying that's an excuse, but we definitely struggled in the last couple of weeks. Even in the week we had a win, we played Goulburn but we might have gotten away with that one because they're not going so well.

"Once we came up against a good team, we struggled."

That being said, Forlonge believes the Roos have the experience and desire to pull off a victory if given the chance.

"I'm still more than confident we can perform if we get there," he said.

"It's not just the boys that have been with the club for a few years, we recruited a few older heads that have been around AFL Canberra for a lot of years now and they've played at a high level and played plenty of finals.

"Even the blokes we've brought in are relatively comfortable in finals, so finals don't really phase us too much, we're not overawed by the occasion."

AFL Canberra has promised to provide the local football community with updates as soon as they are available.