Shepp News |
At least one of Goulburn Valley Football League’s best sides will enter the finals with question marks.
Top side Kyabram and reigning premier Tatura meet in a Saturday night special in the competition’s final round.
A Bombers loss would be their second straight after an extraordinary 14-match winning streak, while the third-placed Bulldogs could go into the finals with four defeats in their past six games.
Not that either of the coaches has those scenarios in mind, although Kyabram coach David Williams wasn’t necessarily devastated to lose last week.
One more defeat would likely result in the Bombers slipping to third position.
‘‘The pressure is on to get that top-two spot and we had training Sunday morning and talked about a few things,’’ Williams said.
‘‘We learned (last week against Rochester) we’re not that far ahead of the pack .
‘‘But I would have hated going into finals with 16 wins in a row. I’ve never experienced it before in my life and we weren’t pumping sides — we were doing just enough to get by.
‘‘We’re not taking anything away from Rochester, because they played some really good footy on Saturday night and it was not as if we had a bad day.’’
A wealth of talent is in line to return, including key Kyabram quartet Luke Morris (calf), Xavier Hilton (flu) and Nathan Beck and Rhys Clark (both VFL), who has overcome hamstring tightness.
Williams rated spearhead Paul Newman (osteitis pubis) just a 10 per cent chance of playing.
Tom Durward (flu) will bolster Tatura’s defensive stocks and Rhodes Cousland (knee) will play at either senior or reserves level.
The Bulldogs’ versatility was a key in them coming back from 12 points down in round one against the Bombers to post a 38-point victory.
Ben Waite started forward that day before going down back to quell Newman, utility James Wall booted five second-half goals on Jason Morgan and Billy Lovel matched that haul after leaving Newman’s side.
Tatura coach Scott Grigg said he would take little out of that contest between the combatants.
‘‘They’ve got some different players there than last time, so we need to make sure we come prepared for their very best side to play and make adjustments,’’ Grigg said.
‘‘They’ve got a certain ball pattern and they do attack the corridor and we need to make sure our defensive starting positions are intact to make sure we try to take away their attacking brand of footy.’’
Lovel and Leigh Owen, who instantly added bite to the midfield, made welcome returns in the Bulldogs’ 146-point demolition of Echuca last round.
Billy Hicks is also in rare form, with Grigg saying the speedy goal-kicking midfielder had taken his game to another level this season.
