HUNGRY TO REBOUND
A YOUTHFUL and heavily undermanned Huonville will go into the battle of the Huon on Saturday with a ‘stripped back’ mentality as it looks to regain some confidence after last week’s mauling at the hands of Lindisfarne.
The fourth-placed Lions were beaten by 109 points by the Two Blues and will now face the powerful Port while missing almost half of its best 22 due to a host of injuries and an ill-timed late season holiday.
Lions captain James McIndoe – who will miss the clash with an ankle injury – said his side had to have belief it could win if they were any chance of causing a boil over at home on Saturday.
“It’s always got a finals feel against them and especially two weeks out from finals,” McIndoe said. “Our thing at the moment is stripping it all back and we talked during the week and said at the end of the day it’s 22 humans versus 22 other humans.
“There’s a bit of belief that needs to happen upstairs to try and match the other team, otherwise you’re never going to win a game of football.
“You can’t go into a contest thinking you’ll get beat, so that’s our mindset going into the game.”
With five of their starting 18 missing Saturday’s clash due to a birthday celebration in Brisbane, McIndoe said the club would once again look to its young cubs to fill the void, with two Lions set to make their senior debuts.
“We’ve got a few out this week, as we’ve had all year, and so we’ve got a few young blokes playing,” McIndoe said.
“We are quite youthful this week and a few debutants and we’ve been grabbing guys from our colts this year rather than of the reserves, which is great for the future of the club and gives them a chance to play at a higher level.
“Again, this week, they’ll be tasked with that job of filling the role of a senior footy player and we’ll see how they go and hopefully they enjoy it and are better for the experience.
“Tom Jacobs makes his senior debut and Connar Walker, who has played seniors at Claremont, but his first senior game here.”
Cygnet spearhead James Zeitsen – who will also be out with a hand injury – said Port couldn’t afford to be complacent heading into the clash as it strives for back-to-back flags.
“We just have to treat it as any other game and any time we play them, it always seems to be close contest.”
Both clubs will wear a special Indigenous jumper for the clash, due to an initiative from the Lions that started last season. The Lions and the Port will get under way at 2.15pm on Saturday.