by Jim Gordon
JEPARIT RAINBOW V BEULAH
Jeparit Rainbow should be all ready fired up for their home game against the talented Beulah outfit. The Lakers are coming off the bye, they like to play against the Blues and they have a couple coming back after injury. The Blues went down last week in a tight encounter against the Devils and will be looking for a win to keep them in the race for a top two spot on the ladder.
Training has been good at Jeparit Rainbow over the past two weeks, numbers are up despite the Lakers’ lack of success in either seniors or reserves. Adam Schumann should return to the Jeparit Rainbow team, but they will be without veteran defender Brett Fisher. His experience and guidance will be sorely missed by their young defenders who are developing well as a unit with Fisher at the helm.
Beulah will be without prolific possession winner Brad Shannon and together with forward Tyler Lehmann, they will be big losses for the Blues, both are out with injuries. However, unlike the Lakers, the Blues have shown that they have the greater depth to cover unavailable players.
The Blues will probably use youngsters Kai Forsyth and Tim Phelan so these two will need to put in good performances to hold their places in the team. Lucas Smith is in great form, he is a tough in and under player and provides the Blues with a lot of run out of defence and clearances out of trouble.
Rory Shannon and Tim Hill will lead the Blues backline and these two have done a great job all year and are part of a backline that sees Beulah having the second lowest score kicked against them of any side in the league.
Jeparit Rainbow are going to need to play four very good quarters of football if they are to be a chance against Beulah. The last few weeks have seen some good periods of play by the team, but they just haven’t been able to sustain it for the whole game.
The ever reliable Ash Clugston, Aaron Beer and Sean Bayzand are going to need more support and Justin Chilver will have to lift. After a great start to the year, Chilver has been down on form a bit lately and has played in the forward line the last few weeks. He has a big challenge ahead of him against Steph Saunders who took Ouyen apart two weeks ago.
The Lakers’ Andrew Watson has found it tough going over the last two games playing against the likes of Kain Robins and Jarrod Arentz. Watson won’t have it all that easy this week as he may be used against the inform David King..
Younger Laker players Nathan Cocks Tom Clugston and Ash Cook have all played some good football in recent games and have provided Jeparit Rainbow a positive in a tough year.
HOPETOUN V WALPEUP UNDERBOOL
For the second time this season Hopetoun will be trying to prove that they are worthy challengers to Walpeup Underbool’s top spot on the ladder. The last time they came up again the Roos, their loss was the start of a mini slump and the Devils have only just got back into a winning frame of mind.
The Roos will be very keen to get back on the winners’ list after their surprising loss last week to Ouyen United. Walpeup Underbool had players out and kicked poorly, but did not play anywhere near what they are capable of and their first loss will not hurt them at this stage of the year.
It is hard to know what to expect from the Roos. They seem to have a high turnover of
players each week, yet if they bring their top form to this game, they should win comfortably. Hopetoun on the other hand are bristling with talent, but they likewise can also drop off in intensity just when you think they are ready to demolish the opposition. Too many times this season the Devils have had bad lapses for a whole quarter or even a half of football.
Walpeup Underbool’s strength is in the middle where Josh Charles rucks to very strong on ballers in Sam McDonald, David Piasente, Luke Nathan and Josh Stone. Ouyen United made the Roos look slow last week and if the Devils can exploit their lack of explosive pace, they could do well, although the lack of a quality big man has found the Devils out this season.
Hopetoun’s Deek Roberts is unavailable this week. This will mean that Anthony Baker, Luke Carr and Liam Price will have their work cut out matching it with the talented Walpeup Underbool midfield.
Roo Simon Brown is due to return and should provide run from half back that has been missing lately due to the injury to Ryan Anderson. Wade Champion will be better for the run last week and we can expect that he will be strong up forward for the Roos.
Nullifying Kane and Kyle Munro to a minimum number of goals will also be crucial to the Devils’ success. Simon Cook will be the leader in defence and he will be ably assisted by Scott Heath and Ben Reid.
Kain Robins will no doubt get the Roos best defender and to their credit, they have a number of options with Matt Palmer usually gets first chance on Robins; he held the champion last time they met. If Robins gets on top of Palmer this time, Chris Lynch can be used or even the very experienced Jim Wakefield.
The Ross are expecting several players to return from injury in the next few weeks. This should be a cracking game with the Devils in some reasonable form, however the loss Deek of Roberts will hurt and the Roos should bounce back after a poor game last week.
OUYEN UNITED V WOOMELANG LASCELLES
Ouyen United will go into this game against Woomelang Lascelles as warm favourites after their stunning upset win over top team Walpeup Underbool last week. Yet the Cats have also shown some good form lately without actually winning. They ran the Roos to nine points two weeks ago and fell away last week against the Tigers after both sides were even at three quarter time.
Nevertheless, the Demons look too strong all over the ground, particularly after the return to form of Troy Moncur last week. Moncur played in the ruck all day and dominated proceedings not only through tap outs, but by marking all around the ground. He combines well with John Jackson and Glenn Joyce in the midfield.
Young Demon Aaron Morrish impressed last week in his first game for the seniors. Playing off half back, Morrish did a lot of good work in helping to nullify a potent Walpeup Underbool forward line. The Demon defence stood up well last week, Dean Jardine was one of Ouyen United’s best and Adam O’Callaghan is having a good year.
The Demons should be too good for the Cats, especially at home. A good win here and we could be in for a cracker of a game between United and Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers the week after.
Last Modified on 11/07/2012 20:07
