By KEVIN HILLIER - Division 1 Seniors
SPOTSWOOD became the first casualty of the WRFL finals at the weekend when they went down to Altona.
The Woodsmen are used to going deep into the finals, and new coach Anthony Eames will have plenty of motivation for his playing group to get them through the long and arduous pre-season.
Spotswood have some of the competitions best senior players, and as I have written before, a very strong group of emerging players from their underage teams. Their future looks bright.
Ten goals was enough for Altona to stay alive in the finals race and Mitch Turnbull bobbing up with nearly half that total, is both a good and bad sign. His form is excellent, but if he is shut down, who kicks the goals?
Werribee Districts have a number of options to match up on Turnbull, and I am sure Paul Chapman and his coaches will be right onto it from the first bounce.
A fit Joe Halloran would be ideal.
Districts have their own problems up forward. Andrew Panayi is still their most potent weapon, but he needs help from the likes of Molivas, Black and Harrington.
You would not be expecting a high scoring game, regardless of the weather conditions, between these two sides. Altona has failed in both meetings this season to kick more than 60-points, a recurrence of that means curtains for the Vikings.
Werribee did kick 16-goals in their last meeting, a game which featured their coach on the ground in one of his rare on field performances.
It is hard to go past Districts 100 per cent record over the Vikings this year, and hard to overlook the way they have been able to shut them down on the scoreboard.
Despite that, and even though I tipped against both last week, this week I am favouring the Vikings, by a very slender margin.
Deer Park begin their finals campaign against a side they have dominated this year, especially in their last encounter in Round 11.
That counts for nothing now as Marc Bullen knows only too well.
A spot in the grand final is all the motivation the Lions will need, to do the business.
Any internal pressure or expectations will not be a factor this week for the reigning premiers.
They have a job to do, and I fully expect them to be methodical and ruthless in every aspect of the game.
They will not have it entirely on their own, and can expect a serious challenge from the Hoppers boys led by Wayde Skipper and Matt Ryan.
While I don’t believe in certainties in sport, I just can’t see the Lions letting their guard down enough for Hoppers to get a look in.
Last Modified on 23/08/2016 09:48