Regional rivals North Ballarat and Bendigo go head-to-head this Sunday as both clubs look to cement top eight positions ahead of September, as Adem Saricaoglu writes.
The Roosters will host the Gold at Eureka Stadium after out-gunning Williamstown at Burbank Oval last week, while in-form Bendigo is coming off a bye.
Bendigo coach Hayden Skipworth said the week off should benefit his side, but is still wary of North Ballarat’s good recent form.
“North Ballarat at North Ballarat is always a hard game to win, so we’re expecting a very physical, very contested-type game,” Skipworth said.
“They’ve been in great form over the last three or four weeks, so it’s going to be a tight game and hopefully we can get across the line.
“The regional towns are always fierce competitors, and I’m sure this Sunday will be no different.”
The Gold currently sits fifth and looks set for a serious assault on the top four, but Skipworth says knocking off the Roosters in enemy territory is the club’s sole focus this Sunday.
“Our record over the years has been very poor against North Ballarat, they’re a great team and we’ll have to get one back on them,” he said.
“They’ve hardly got a weak link in their team, their VFL listed players are very good, as well as the AFL listed players that are very good as well.
“Our focus is going to be our game style and getting the game on our terms and playing how we want to play, so that’s been the focus for the last six weeks and it will continue to be the focus this Sunday.”
The form of Bendigo’s Essendon-listed players in recent weeks has been particularly impressive, and North Ballarat coach Gerard FitzGerald is well aware of the damage they can cause.
“We suspect the successes of Essendon will be having a positive effect on the Bendigo group,” FitzGerald said.
“We’re expecting them to be very strong, because the Essendon AFL team is playing very well, and they’ve got some very good players on the list.
“There’ll be a lot of Essendon boys playing with Bendigo on Sunday who will be fighting for a senior spot, so it’s a strong Bendigo team that is coming down.”
North Ballarat re-joined the top eight after last week’s win at Williamstown, where the Roosters showed remarkable defensive resilience in the second half to keep the fast-finishing Seagulls at bay.
FitzGerald said defence will again be the key against the Gold.
“It was a very hard-fought game against Williamstown in heavy conditions, and we’ve continued to look at and practise our team defence concept, which is improving, but there’s still a lot of work to do on it,” he said.
“Some confidence and belief has placed us in the eight, so the importance of this game is now we start the new challenge, and that’s being able to stay in the eight.”
The first bounce will be at 2pm this Sunday at Eureka Stadium.
Last Modified on 08/07/2012 08:20