Brisbane Roar defender Ivan Franjic will be a keen observer when Miron Bleiberg’s Gold Coast United and Major Semi-Final opponents Central Coast Mariners go head to head in this weekend’s Hyundai A-League Preliminary Final.
While the 23-year-old opted against watching last night-s Elimination Final in favour of a relaxing afternoon of lawn bowls with the rest of the squad, Franjic said he would be watching the qualifying match keenly to see who his Brisbane Roar team would meet in this year-s decider.
The prospect of playing against Gold Coast United in two weeks time was a mouth-watering one given the local rivalry between the two sides, but the right-back-s focus was firmly set on his own preparations for the big match.
“It would be great if it-s a derby grand final, whoever wins the game is good enough to go through to the Grand Final and whoever we play we hopefully will beat,” he said.
“To be fair, whoever we play, we just want to worry about our own game and each of the boys will worry about their own jobs.
“We want to get out there, play the way we-ve been playing and the result will hopefully come.”
Franjic was unsure whether a week-s break would work for or against Ange Postecoglou-s squad but had confidence in the club-s coaching staff to make the right decisions in their training schedule leading up to grand final clash.
“We prefer to play every week but we-ve got a break so we-ll take it as it comes so we are ready for the final,” he said.
“We-ll have a bit of a harder training week this week preparing for next week.”
After a stellar season that has seen a current unbeaten streak of 27 matches, the club-s first ever premiership and an attacking style of football hailed as one of the best the country has ever seen, Franjic couldn-t think of a better way than to end it with a championship trophy.
“I believe if we keep playing the way we-ve been playing, there is no reason why we can-t win,” he said.
“We-ve played great all season and I-ll back us against any team.”
