Challenge ahead for Swifts team
Horsham District football’s quiet-achieving Swifts will be far from quiet if they can bowl over Jeparit-rainbow this Saturday.
Swifts sit in a top-six logjam in fourth spot on the ladder, but victory over the Storm would start turning heads to the southeast.
Swifts scrambled to a 14-point win over Laharum in a low-scoring affair last weekend and need to find something extra for the challenge up north.
Ben Taylor, Adrian Reid and Nick Pickering led the Baggies over the line at home at North Park in Stawell last week, but the eight goals the team kicked to secure the points are unlikely to be enough to overcome the Storm.
Jeparit-rainbow responded to a major challenge last week when it held off Natimuk United, eventually winning by 28 points.
At the heart of the win, which shored up the Storm as a double-chance contender, was a nine-goal performance by either-end key-position star Peter Weir. Along with Shane Maslin, Tyler Edelsten, Brent Marra and co, Weir made sure the Storm continued to keep pace with Kalkee and Harrow-balmoral at the head of the table.
Swifts have a tough assignment, especially at Jeparit.
Bounce back
The result at Natimuk would have stung the home side, which is probably better than its sixth place on the ladder suggests.
The Rams, who had players such as Alex Dwyer, Jordan Smith and Ashley Loft mixing in the heat of battle and leader Sam Anson kicking four goals last week, will return to the winners list by beating Pimpinio.
Pimpinio was simply overwhelmed by a Kalkee side that trounced the Tigers by 227 points.
Liam Jakobi and Jonty Dumesny raged against the machine for the Tigers and will need to back up again for another tough encounter.
Looks hard
Rupanyup, Laharum and Noradjuha-quantong all remain in the hunt for a swinging sixth spot, but odds appear stacked against them.
Rupanyup, despite scoring a 156-point win over Taylors Lake, runs into Kalkee, while Laharum and Noradjuha-quantong take each other on at Laharum.
Rupanyup scored an impressive 31.22 with Trent Grant kicking a mighty 13 goals and Jack Musgrove nine.
But Kalkee also has players in fine fettle, with Jayden Kuhne bagging nine goals, Lachie Exell five and Karl Campbell four as Simon Hobbs ran wild in the Kees’ win over Pimpinio.
Laharum had Cooper Henson, Angus Martin and Tom Crawford in good nick against Swifts, while Noradjuha-quantong had a bye.
Edenhope-apsley, meanwhile, is likely to keep pace with other top-six teams by beating Taylors Lake.
The Saints could not match Harrow-balmoral in the second half last week despite the efforts of Jeremy Kealy, Lachlan Middleton and Dale Smith.
Southern Roos such as Will Plush, Mick Phelan, Cody Deutscher and five-goal Simon Close produced big games to beat their south-west rivals.
Taylors Lake could not close the floodgates against Rupanyup, but managed to get on the board itself with Connor Healey kicking four goals and Trae Martin and Addison Rigby doing well.
The Saints and Lakers meet at Apsley.