Bumper meeting of title fancies

Matthew Galea

April 5 2014

Shepparton News

The new season has started brightly for Regional Premier League hot-shots Shepparton South and Cobram Victory, but there’s plenty of work ahead.

The Southerners had a bye last weekend, but opened its campaign with an impressive 2-0 win over Cobram and coach Reno Lia is hopeful of repeating the feat against the Tigers’ arch-rivals.

‘‘I haven’t seen them play, but they’ve recruited well and I’ve seen two of those recruits play in Louis (Clark) and Charlie (Romain),’’ Lia said.

‘‘Louis is very impressive and that’s the key this year. You need to recruit well to complement the locals you have.’’

Lia’s boys put in a huge effort over the pre-season, playing plenty of games and starting far earlier than their RPL rivals, which has seemingly given them an early advantage, but Lia said the loss of players to Goulburn Valley Suns and other causes had also been a disruption.

‘‘That put us back a bit and we actually think that we’re still a couple of weeks from where we want to be,’’ Lia said.

‘‘Fitness is obviously a key, as is having quality all over the pitch which we’ve strived to do since we finished our last game last season.

‘‘We’ve seen in the first two rounds that anyone can beat anyone else, and what’s on paper means nothing. It comes down to who wants to work hardest at training and making sure everyone is up for it on match day because the team that isn’t will drop points.’’

That might make for good news for Victory coach Clark, who was impressed with what he saw from the Southerners in round one.

‘‘They worked really hard to get the three points that day . . . but we’ve had two really good sessions this week and there’s a good vibe from the boys,’’ Clark said.

‘‘We’re fully committed to go out there and giving it our all.

‘‘They’ve had a good pre-season and look fit, which could be a factor, but we’re getting fitter and the more games we play and the harder we train all helps that.’’

Neither side reported any injuries or unavailable players, ensuring the best available talent will be on the park for a huge RPL showdown.

The game will be played at 3 pm at Northern Oval, following the earlier games between Shepparton United and Kyabram Phoenix and Cobram and Tatura.