Dale Tonkin’s expert preview of the AFL Broken Hill action this weekend…
Well folks, this year’s final round has been completed, and what a season it was been. We’ve seen North beat West by the best part of 10 goals to end the season with nine wins, while power house South Roos chalked up another massive win by getting to a double century in their score line against Central Magpies which got them 14 wins for the year.
And I can’t go past South’s Cody Schorn who kicked a massive 19 goals in his last game, an unbelievable achievement. And if my calculations are correct Cody only needs three more goals to reach his 100 for the year and he will likely do that in the Grand Final standing on his head, no matter who South play. Awesome achievement, Cody.
Okay, so onto the must anticipated prelim final between North and West. I believe there’s quite a lot of spite between the two clubs and today’s match should present a thriller.
West opted to rest most of their players last week while North had a bit more of a settled side but today North will make a massive 11 changes and West will make even a few more I would imagine.
Key players to watch are Ceslick, Milne, Savage, Ellis and Tonkin Kelly Jones, Slattery, Turner, Shepard and Dalby.
Noth Bulldogs coach, Mark Pitt, says, “we’ll go through our processes, do a bit of set-up stuff, get a lot of hands on the football, and really look forward to playing this weekend against West.”
West will swing most of their players at either end of the ground while the Dogs will rely on winning the ball at the source through the middle and trying to play front half footy.
I believe who ever settles quicker on the day and starts to put score board pressure on will win the game. Both teams are capable of this as there’s not really much between them.
It’s also a game that could be won or lost from the bench so both coaches need to be organised, relaxed, and be able to delegate certain roles within the contest.
West Robins’ coach Nathan Pearce, says, “we’ve done a lot this year on game plan. We’ve trained it a lot, we’ve tried some stuff throughout the last couple of weeks specific to this weekend, and it’ll be interesting to see how they go. If we’re good enough and we play our type of football, we’ll make a Grand Final. If we don’t, then we get beat and we look to next year. We’ll go in pretty confident that we can play our best footy. And if that happens, then we give ourselves a good chance.”
As I continue to think about both sides, this game just keeps getting more exciting the more I think of it. I can’t wait for this one.
South will be hoping both teams crash and bash in so they’re completely sore for the following week.
Games like this one don’t come up to often but these are the games when players can make a name for themselves and don’t leave anything on the field.
Get to every contest you can and even if you think you can’t get to the next contest extend yourself and will yourself to that contest.
It’s about all or nothing today. Who will get the chance to take on the champions next week? God knows, but both teams should have that final game in their sights. Neither can afford to take their eyes off this contest.
I am going to be a chicken and keep my tip today close to my chest but everyone will get something out of today so even if you don’t support one of the two teams. It would be worth coming down to the footy today and watch these two have a Dinky Die crack at each other
Enjoy the footy everyone.
