Battle on as teams fight for position
Strategic jostling for position in Horsham District football ranks is well underway and this weekend there will be plenty of interest in a clash between Jeparitrainbow and Swifts.
Jeparit-rainbow is sitting third on the ladder on equal points with barnstorming Harrow-balmoral, while the Stawell-based Baggies are fourth in a group of midfield chasers only a game further behind.
The teams clash at Stawell’s North Park with the Storm fresh from a 61-point win over Rupanyup and Swifts coming off a hefty 10-goal loss to Southern Mallee Giants.
A quick look at the form of both teams in the past five weeks shows Jeparit-rainbow with five straight wins and the Baggies showing a loss, win, loss, win, win record.
Swifts failed to make ground against the Giants last game after falling 16 points behind by the first change.
While staying competitive for much of the contest at Beulah, the visitors watched the margin blow out for the rest of the game.
What was encouraging was the continued good form of Ben Taylor and good games from Adrian Reid, Josh Davis and Cody Vergona.
It was a different tale for Jeparit-rainbow, which through the likes of Sean Bayzand, Lucas Edelsten and Shane Maslin, gained ascendancy against Rupanyup at Rupanyup.
The clash between Swifts and the Storm promises to be a beauty and is sure to catch the attention of both Natimuk United and Laharum, also in the chasing group.
Natimuk United, a big winner over Pimpinio, has a tough game against a Kalkee side that belted Taylors Lake and might have found bounce-back momentum.
Nathan Koenig continues to kick goals for Natimuk United, which also needs David Caulfield to continue living up to potential behind the likes of coach Sam Anson, Wil Ridsdale and Jono Lovel.
Kalkee had Brendans Hobbs and Mcdonald and Karl Campbell attracting votes last week and Jasper Gunn, seven goals, and Steve Schultz, six, making their presence felt.
The truth is Laharum will be paying too much attention to trying to curb the Harrow-balmoral machine at Balmoral to think about other games.
Laharum held on to beat Edenhope-apsley last week but a big question mark hangs over the fitness of joint coach Robbie Miller who went down with injury during the game.
Miller, along with fellow coach Todd Heynen and Tom Crawford, was in everything last week.
Harrow-balmoral kicked 32 goals to Noradjuha-quantong’s one last week and it is hard to see any opposition teams stopping the Southern Roos, in the short term at least. Last weekend it was Hamish Ellis, Sam Brewer and Scott Heath collecting primary votes while Hugh Douglas, eight goals, and Greg Hamilton, five, enjoyed their time in front of the sticks.
In other games, Edenhope-apsley will get a chance to maintain pace with the midfield pack by beating Taylors Lake, the Southern Mallee Giants will cruise to victory over Pimpinio and Noradjuha-quantong should have a tight tussle against Rupanyup with Rupanyup snaring the points.