The Roosters will be on a mission to upset the Hawks at Box Hill City Oval this Saturday, as Alysia Thomas Sam reports.
With the VFL State game weekend bye having come and gone for Box Hill Hawks and North Ballarat, it’s back to VFL home and away football with Round 9 action.
Hawks players David Mirra, Marc Lock and Ayden Kennedy will be hungry for redemption this Saturday as the last two times they’ve hit the field their efforts have resulted in a loss. In Box Hill’s last VFL match, Port Melbourne handed them their first defeat of the year by seven points.
Contrastingly, in North Ballarat’s last performance, acting captain Luke Kiel led the Roosters to a tremendous 94-point win against Bendigo at Swan Hill, which was their third win a row. Their immense control of play against the Gold indicated a lift in intensity off the back of their poor start early in the season through losses to tough competition.
Ben Jacobs produced a standout performance for the Roosters as he accumulated an imposing 42 disposals with 14 alone in the second quarter and slotted through four as well. His run and carry up the corridor was efficient while his intelligent ball passing into the forward fifty promoted effective play for his teammates to capitalise.
The impressive efforts in North Ballarat’s victory over Bendigo let’s them carry three consecutive wins and a healthy ninth placing on the ladder as momentum when travelling into Box Hill to take on the reigning premiers.
However, the reigning premiers have let their top spot slip to the skillful Boroughs in their narrow loss at home, and the Hawks will be seeking to atone front of the Box Hill faithful who are not accustom to seeing their boys lose.
AFL Victoria development squad regular, Pat Lawlor, will be joining the senior team this weekend against the Roosters after consistent form in his recent appearances. In his last especially, he racked up a dominant 30 kicks, 9 handballs and 5 marks. His agility will be a welcome facet to the Hawks game plan Saturday, as they will want to shut down the improving Roosters early.
Both the Roosters and Hawks last went head to head 378 days ago at Eureka Stadium during Round 8 of the 2013 season. For the first half of the match the game was separated by two-points at each break with the Hawks holding the minor advantage. However, by the end of the third quarter the Roosters were facing a 51-point deficit with only a 3-point dent on the scoreboard for the entire third term.
Matt Spangher, Jonathon Ceglar and Derek Wanganeen were influential in the match as Box Hill took home the win by 23 points, despite a persevering Roosters squad in the final quarter.
To fend off goals from the relentless Hawks this time round, the Roosters are welcoming back defender Oliver Tate after his hamstring injury has kept him sidelined since their round four match against Geelong. Coach Gerard FitzGerald has included Tate in the squad this weekend after successful examination of his form at training on Wednesday.
Despite Tate’s return, the persistent Hawks in Tim O’Brien, James Sicily and Sam Grimley will be relentless in front of goal this weekend. If Tate isn’t on his toes – the Hawks will have a field day in their forward fifty as they so often do against incoming opposition.
As captain Michael Searl is still expected to miss a month more of VFL football despite making good progress during training – this just might be the story of their match this weekend. The Roosters produced a stellar display of skill against Bendigo, but it may not be enough to overcome the Hawks who will want to make amends for their narrow loss to the Borough.
Last Modified on 06/06/2014 22:20