Tigers aim to ground high-flying Bombers

THE Tigers are ready for their clash with reigning premier North Launceston at UTas Stadium on Saturday, says the TSL’s latest sharpshooter Eddie Burrows-Cheng — they’ve been setting themselves for it all summer.

The former Tiger returned from Queensland this year for an immediate impact, kicking four goals in the Tigers’ Good Friday win over North Hobart at North Hobart Oval.

Burrows-Cheng, 22, said the Tigers brought their A-game against the Demons and will need to double that against the Bombers. “It goes up a couple of levels, definitely,” he said.

“I feel like we are definitely ready for it. We’re looking forward to testing ourselves against the best in the competition. We’ve been setting ourselves for that all pre-season.

“It’s a massive test. They did a good job at the weekend against Launceston. We will go up there and do the best we’ve got.”

Based on their first-up win, which put them on top of the ladder, the Tigers are a contender for the top five.

“I think we can if we play our brand of footy,” Burrows-Cheng said. “With everything that we are doing at the moment and the way we are preparing and everything we have put in place over the pre-season, if we stick to our values and play our brand of footy I believe we are good enough to make it.”

A key to the Tigers’ 53-point win over North Hobart was their Richmond-style forward line.

“We’ve got a small forward line so we can apply pressure on the backs to handball and then cut off the ball as much as we can,” Burrows-Cheng said. “We have a couple of talls who can roll forward in Cooper Sawdy and our two ruckmen Hugh Johnston and Heath Thompson.

“We have the option to go tall but we do like that small forward line with the pressure and I’d like to say there‘s a Richmond influence there as well — because I’m a Tigers man.”

One of the pleasures of Friday’s opener was playing his first game with brother Oliver, 17.

“That was a long-time dream of mine to play with Ollie,” he said. “The six years in between us made it hard and meant everything had to coincide. But it was a proud moment — he gave me my second goal and I gave him one back. It meant a lot to me and the family.”