UNBEATEN SAINTS EYE PORT THREAT
PERFECT dozen with a potential grand final preview on the horizon.
Cairns Saints have overcome a handful of mid-season injury concerns to arrive at the representative bye perched at the top of the AFL Cairns ladder unbeaten through 12 games.
A plethora of Saints and Port Douglas footballers will become teammates this week for North Queensland before returning to their clubs for what is looking increasingly likely to be the game that will involve the last two teams standing in the competition.
Saints made it 12-0 on Saturday afternoon at Crathern Park as they blew out a lacklustre Centrals Trinity Beach by 123-points.
The red, white and black were never troubled by the Bulldogs, who have now slipped to fifth on the ladder, and Saints key defender Jesse Dixon turned his club’s attention to Port Douglas in a fortnight’s time.
“It does feel good to be in the position we are so far,” Dixon said.
“But, we are still going to take it week by week at the moment.
“We have Port next and they had a really good win up there against South Cairns this week.”
Pressure on the ball carrier lacked for much of the afternoon from the Bulldogs as Saints moved the footy around the ground comfortably.
The Bulldogs adopted an ultra-aggressive approach the last time the two clubs met but a repeat of that was nowhere to be seen on Saturday afternoon.
“We had gone away from our structures the last few weeks but we got back to the footy we wanted,” Dixon said.
“I thought we set up behind the ball the way we wanted to choke them.”
With key forward Tom Eltringham on the sidelines with his shoulder complaint, playing-coach Tim Lamprill spent more time deep forward, while Jack Philp and ruckman Adam Davey provided other outlets to goal.
With Saints expected to have a strong presence in the North Queensland squad, Philp, Cade Wellington and Joel Newman will land in the representative game in form as they found an abundance of footy in the rout.
With a handful of firstchoice players missing through injury, Saints have found contributions from Aaron Mullane, Brock Bish and Brayden Bux.
One positive for the Bulldogs was the return of skipper Jackson Williams, who had missed through injury since late June.
WE HAD GONE AWAY FROM OUR STRUCTURES THE LAST FEW WEEKS BUT WE GOT BACK TO THE FOOTY WE WANTED CAIRNS SAINTS KEY DEFENDER JESSE DIXON