Vultures hoping to take spoils at home
Photo: Nev Madsen
GRIDIRON: After rain halted play last weekend, the Valleys Vultures are relishing the chance to return home to Toowoomba.
The side has been routinely travelling east on the road since their last home game on September 8.
Captain Chris Lau said they were keen to end the season on a high over the next three weeks with three consecutive games at Herb Steinohrt Oval, and hoped for a few more players to help the team out.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been at home and it’s good to not have to travel two or three hours to get to a venue,” Lau said.
“We’ve broken it up with a few bus trips and it’s good to be with the team.
“Hopefully we can get a few more numbers. We have players coming from Millmerran and the greater Downs coming in so it can be really hard to get everybody on the same page some days, so we’re hoping for larger numbers.”
The numbers game has been an issue for the Vultures in 2018, with players regularly required to play both offence and defence throughout games.
“We’re working our way there. The Gridiron Queensland competition has strengthened,” he said. “Players have migrated to clubs and clubs are super stacked. We’ve been finding it hard to get the same amount of players with the club still in its infancy.
“The signs are encouraging though and we’ve been essentially playing no substitution football.
“I’m fairly happy with how the team is going and it’s good to see it developing.”
After keeping the ladderleading Brisbane Rhinos to a scoreless second half prior to last week’s washout, the Vultures anticipate a similar effort against the Griffith Thunder who sit in second.
Lau said they had taken a number of lessons from their showing against the Rhinos that they hoped to implement on Saturday.
“We definitely worked really hard to try and hold it together (against Brisbane). They didn’t pour it on and I was very proud considering the numbers that we had on the field,” he said.
“To go against imports from division one and two in college, the country boys held down the fort.
“The Thunder have the Queensland quarterback and they’ve picked up some decent players from clubs that have folded.
“But we love playing against the best. Even though we’re not favourites, we put it on the line.
“If we can manage our turnovers on offence and hopefully chip away and get field position, we’ll stick with them.”