Time to get serious, say Demons

THE Hobart City Demons have their eye on a spot in the finals and have earmarked the next six weeks as their time to shine in the hope of lifting from sixth into the top five — starting with the Tigers at North Hobart Oval tomorrow.

Both sides have two important inclusions for their Round 12 clash.

Coach Kane Richter will return for the Demons after a week off for general soreness, and Tigers skipper Tim Peterson returns after a week of finding form in the Mercury Cup.

After last week’s 11-goal loss to North Launceston, Hobart City assistant coach Trent Baumeler said the time had come to make a stand.

“We need to narrow the gap to the higher-end teams,” he said.

“We go well against the teams that are around us on the ladder. And we beat Clarence, which people saw as an upset. But then we lose to Glenorchy and North Launceston, which is disappointing.

“We have to get ourselves up for those games and we have to narrow the gap to be serious come finals time.

“We want to play finals. We expect to play finals. But we need to start winning those games.”

Tigers coach Aaron Vince said Peterson would come back better and stronger.

“We’ve gotten to the stage now where we’ve got a really good core group of players and you’ve got to earn your senior games — you don’t just get [them] gifted to you as they have done in the past,” he said.

“It’s where we want to go with our footy club. We want to put pressure on the guys who are playing senior footy. They know they’ve earned their spot but they know they have to keep performing to keep it.”