GIRGARRE v MURCHISON
The season of both these teams go on the line as they look to stay in the race to play finals.
For the loser it will be curtains, with only three rounds to follow after today.
Girgarre has improved under second year coach Todd Woodfine, but they can’t just be satisfied with that and he will be demanding a strong finish to claim what looked to be an unlikely finals spot a few weeks ago.
The Kangaroos will take plenty of confidence into the contest with the Grasshoppers, having upset Tallygaroopna last weekend.
Adding to the team’s confidence is the knowledge they have already defeated Murchison this season.
Pivotal to the team’s aspirations of winning today will be Troy Schwarze, Jake Hyland, Ashley Kirchhofer, Ryan Jones, Ashley Hughes and Brad Canny.
These guys have been in really good form during the past fortnight.
Murchison coach Brent Chapman knows his team will face a much tougher proposition than the past fortnight.
The Grasshoppers have probably under-performed this season, with many pundits believing they were a certainty to play finals this year.
Jamie Jones, Jack Sanderson and James Milne have been some of the team’s consistent performers while Chapman would be buoyed by the improvement of some of the team’s second tier players in Thomas Rennie, Nicholas Mileto and John Kealey.
Tip: Girgarre.
VIOLET TOWN v LANCASTER
Violet Town will be eager to return to the winners’ circle and avoid a hat-trick of losses when it plays host to Lancaster.
The Wombats will be desperate to return to the winners’ circle themselves after two losses in a row before the bye that tipped them out of the top six.
Violet Town coach Sean Horsburgh would have been bitterly disappointed that his team missed an opportunity to claim a big scalp last weekend and keep its hopes alive of a top three finish.
The Towners’ have been exceptional this season when challenged and the likes of Jonathan Poole, Lochlan Morrison, Greg Dyer, Matthew Davies, Shaun Silver and Christopher Bamford will be important to claiming the four points while Robert Staff, Samuel Poole and Chris McKay will be keen to play better games this weekend after having a limited impact against Stanhope.
Nick Bertoli will turn to the likes of Andrew Pettigrove, Besim Besim, Zac Cerrone, Sam Spedding, Michael Hill, Jayden Mitchell and Colby McDonald to try and get the four points crucial to stay in the finals race.
A defeat would almost draw the curtain on their finals aspirations.
Tip: Violet Town.
MERRIGUM v STANHOPE
After a terrible start to their title defence, Merrigum is looming large after registering its best win of the season down south against Avenel.
It was the Bulldogs ninth win from their last 10 matches.
There have been a number of reasons for the turnaround in fortunes, but one of the key reasons has been Daniel Clarke.
He has not been out of the best since his return and the utility has been named best on ground at least three times.
Others to contributing to the Bulldogs’ success have been Brendan Barfoot, Christian Barnett, Michael Donaldson, Jason Christou and Austin Bizzotto while down forward they have been less predictable with multiple options.
Stanhope has produced arguably two of its best wins for a long time in beating Lancaster and Violet Town during the past fortnight.
They have had to do it with not only six of their best missing, but six of the competition’s best players.
The Lions are likely to be without some of those again today and possibly coach Brenton Gray, but will turn to Lukas Hanslow, Thomas Hepburn, Simon Collis, Craig Emmett, Jack Young and Jarrad Mason for leadership.
Merrigum has a point to prove after putting in one of their worst performances under the watch of Christian Barnett when these teams clashed earlier in the season.
Tip: Merrigum.
NAGAMBIE v TALLYGAROOPNA
The moment of truth has arrived for Tallygaroopna.
With a favourable draw and seemingly cruising towards the finals, the Redlegs’ are now locked in a four way battle for sixth place, with any slip ups opening the door up to teams below them.
Chris Earles would have been furious with the way his team started last weekend’s game with so much on the line.
Yes, they fought back which would have pleased him, but he knows another slow start and they will be on the end of a defeat to one of the league’s best teams.
Mark Nolan, Brayden Biggs, Kyle Winter-Irving, Jayden Gleeson, Hamish Winter-Irving and Keenan Shepherd helped the Lakers leapfrog their arch rival and into first place last weekend.
For Tallygaroopna, Timothy Karolidis, Douglas Wren, Timothy Belford, Austin Tricarico, Jayden Goodwin and Sean Arnold have been the team’s consistent performers and they will need to play well for the team to be any chance of victory.
Tip: Nagambie.
OTHER
In the remaining two matches of the round, Longwood take on its neighbour Avenel on the rebound while Rushworth will be out to make it back-to-back wins for the second time this season when it makes the short trip to Ardmona.
Tips: Rushworth and Avenel.
Last Modified on 25/07/2016 11:44