Central Augusta travels to Port Pirie to take on the Lions at Memorial Oval on Saturday. A win is vital to both sides in attempting to consolidate a position in the top four.
Lions need to put its recent disappointing efforts behind them. While Central will be just as keen to redress last week’s drubbing from West. A distinct gap in the premiership table has already emerged with Port and West clearly on top with the rest of the teams competing for the two remaining places in the four.
Lions and Central have one win each and are both in urgent need of a win to boost their confidence and cement a position in the four. Supporters of both teams had high expectations for the season but until now these expectations have not been realised.
Both sides have their fair share of talented players but through injury and unavailability have not been able to field their best sides highlighting the possible lack of depth for each side.
The ruck duels between the talented Brad Ley and the impressive Jonathon Haynes of Lions and the combination of the experienced and respected campaigners in Mark Fuller and Shane Curnow of Central will be one of many interesting clashes on the day.
The return of Chris Marsland from suspension will be a much needed boost to the Lions. The side has missed his strength and fearless attack at the ball in the past two weeks.
Central’s Matt Keatley is a match winner but will come up against an inform Matt Promnitz in the centre. The possible match up of pacy wingmen in Clinton O’Connor (Lions) and Brett McKerlie (Central) will also be of interest. Both players, however, will need to make the most of their possessions and hence ensure greater scoring opportunities for their forwards.
Lions’ key forward Tate Bradley has had his scoring opportunities restricted due to tight checking. It is important for the Lions success that he gets a bag of goals. The return last match of Daniel Seidel (3 goals) was welcome. Michael Pennington, Tyson Horsnell and Tyrone George are all capable of helping Lions record a winning score.
Central’s also have some potentially high scoring forwards. Namely Shannon Wilson, Anthony Ruffles and Shane Curnow. Lions defence lead by Tom Harmer, Shaun Edwards, Matt Peek and Scott Wardle will need to be at their best to counter this talented trio.
Depending on weather conditions, it is potentially a high scoring and entertaining game. Experienced coaches in Ray Hayes (Central) and Adrian Davies (Lions) will no doubt be both stressing during training this week the importance of the game and the need for total commitment in this vital game for each side.
Huge challenge for Sollies this week
Another tough test for Solomontown lies ahead this Sunday when they meet the other undefeated team, West Augusta at Memorial Oval, Port Pirie.
Coming off a thrashing at the hands of Ports, the Cats will need to show vast improvement to trouble West Augusta, who handed a 108 point lesson to Central Augusta last week.
West Augusta sit at the top of the table, level with Port and four points clear of the rest of the field. Solomontown on the other hand are bottom of the ladder with no points to their credit.
West Augusta were dominant for all four quarters last week and with Hayden Warren (10 goals), Dadleh (5 goals), McIntosh and Bowey in top form, the Hawks will be a difficult proposition for the Cats.
Sollies were troubled by Port’s speed and with West having some very quick and skillful players, it could be more of the same on Sunday.
Solomontown will be without its captain, Richard Cable, as a broken jaw will see him miss a large portion of the rest of the season. Their depth will be tested as the B Grade copped a hiding last week as well.
Skipper and ruckman John Brinker may have done enough in that game to earn a promotion and his presence around the ball could take some pressure off Alan Margatich.
It is hard to see Solomontown troubling West and the Hawks should be far too strong and run out comfortable winners.
Sollies can give themselves an outside chance of causing an upset by showing the same commitment for four quarters as they did in the first and third quarters last week.
Coach David Bickley will be looking for a more consistent effort from his players.
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