Weekly Times | OVENS and Murray interleague coach Brendan Fevola is confident his star-studded side can produce the goods against Peninsula at Albury Sports Ground on Saturday.
Fevola will have a swag of former AFL talent to choose from at the selection table tomorrow night, with Albury’s Setanta O’hAilpin and Dean Polo, North Albury’s Aaron Prior, Yarrawonga’s Craig Ednie and Fevola himself all among the initial squad.
The winner of the clash between the third-placed Peninsula league and fourth-placed Ovens and Murray will play off for the top ranking next year.
“Hopefully we can put in a good performance and play off for that number one spot. I think we are (number one) anyway, but we’ve just got to prove that we are through winning,” Fevola said.
Fevola was thrust into the role as senior coach last year, in an aggressive push from the league to reach the interleague summit.
The move got off to an encouraging start last year, with a 125-point demolition of the Hampden league.
Fevola said he had looked to make the interleague experience more “enjoyable” to attract more quality players.
The Peninsula league isn’t short of former AFL names either, with both Aaron Edwards and Brent Guerra included in its initial squad.
However, Guerra, part of Hawthorn’s premiership side last season, will have tests on his troublesome hamstring at training this week.
He is rated by Peninsula coach Troy Shannon as a “50-50 chance” to play.
Shannon, an assistant in Peninsula’s past two campaigns, said the league wanted to bounce back from its 85-point loss to the Geelong league.
“I want to make amends for what happened last year … not only myself personally, but also the players,” he said. Shannon said the team selected for Saturday’s game would include only a handful of players from the side that was left “embarrassed” last year.
