Winter’s men ready to take revenge

LAUDERDALE coach Darren Winter has taken aim at North Launceston ahead of tomorrow’s clash, declaring his side has not forgotten the heavy-handed Round 1 tactics it received.

Winter was far from impressed with the treatment directed at some of his players off the ball in the seasonopening defeat at Lauderdale, and has issued a blunt warning ahead of the Round 10 rematch at Aurora Stadium.

It adds extra fuel to the blockbuster affair, which pits the most in-form team in the TSL against one coming off its first loss of the season last weekend.

“We will focus on the ball. We want to win the ball, but we certainly won’t get sucked into tactics off the ball,” Winter declared.

“We certainly won’t allow people to hit us 50m off the ball, that is for sure.

“I hope they do [use similar tactics], because they have 10 guys who have played eight games or less in their team.

“It would be very dangerous, I reckon, with a more mature team they will face this time round.

“The ‘bumper bar’ is to stop the guy who gives the ball off, to stop his run to get the ball back.

“It is not to whack into blokes 50m off the ball. They may have got the interpretation wrong.”

The southern Bombers are riding a five-match winning streak — after opening 2017 with three consecutive losses — to catapult into third spot on the ladder.

Winter said the side was playing its best football under his tenure, but he’s aware it must now continue doing so against the best in the business, which had its seven-match winning run snapped by Clarence.

“On Saturday [against Burnie] the guys were really sharp, their ball use was really good. We have been known for our hardness in tight and contested footy, but I think the last four to five weeks our ball use has been very sharp.

“We are coming up against the top teams again now, so that always changes, there is a lot more pressure on.

“Burnie is very young. We are not going into the game blinded that we are going to be able to do that again this week.

“We know we will have to work a lot harder.”