The Bloods mentor knew his team was not performing to its best and “put it on them” to take things to a new level.

On Saturday they responded in the best possible way by claiming the Hampden league reserves premiership against South Warrnambool, winning 13.11 (89) to 12.9 (81).

"We just wanted the boys to really embrace the chance that we had,” Robertson said.

"We had known we had sewn up a spot in the finals and we just knew that we had to be a little bit more professional and pull our socks up to an extent I suppose.

"We just needed to give the finals every bit of a chance this year so we couldn't leave anything out there and didn't want to be unprofessional at all.

"And to the boys' credit, they took it all on board.”

Grand final day didn’t go exactly to plan for the Terang Mortlake coach.

Robertson hobbled from the ground with match-ending calf injury, though still managed to make light of the situation.

"It is very disappointing," he said.

"I would have liked to have had a bit more of an impact on the ground obviously.

"But just in the second quarter I went to do a sharp turn and went to lead and it just went pop and I felt it straight away.

"It is an old man's injury I think, I think it is trying to tell me something."