Heavyweights set for mighty clash
Horsham District Football Netball League foundations are set to shudder under the weight of intensity when two premiership hopefuls clash in the southern Mallee this weekend.
Southern Mallee Giants, the reigning premiers, will open the gates at Hopetoun for a visit from Harrow-balmoral, which will make the trek north-east for what looms as the biggest game of the season to date.
It has become evident after two rounds of competition that both the Giants and the Southern Roos will be pacesetters and Saturday’s clash will determine which has the early edge.
Both sides cantered to onesided victories last week, the Giants dispatching Noradjuhaquantong by a massive 180 points and the Roos crushing Pimpinio by 168.
It’s hard to get a gauge for what the results mean for this weekend, except that Giants forward Kain Robins is obviously on song after a mighty 13-goal haul and others such as Coleman Schache, Luke Mahony and Clint Burdett have had plenty of the ball.
For the Southern Roos, Sam Brewer, Callum Hobbs, Nick Pekin and Greg Hamilton led the charge against Pimpinio.
The major difference between the games is that while the Giants had one dominating forward, the Roos had Hobbs and Pekin kicking nine goals between them and a variety of others also sharing goal-front spoils.
The clash at Hopetoun is only one of several good games expected at the weekend.
In another long-distance challenge, Edenhope-apsley, fresh from overpowering Kalkee last week, tackles Jeparit-rainbow, which had a hard-fought win over Natimuk United.
George Walker with nine goals was a standout player for Edenhope-apsley last week, but so too was Lachlan Middleton, while Daniel Richardson and Jason Rae sneaked into the best-player list.
Jeparit-rainbow had to come from behind in the second half to beat Natimuk United, the form of Luke Murphy and Peter Weir, both with four goals, and Clugston brothers Heath and Ash auguring well for this weekend.
Natimuk United gets its chance to bounce back against a tough opponent when it travels to Laharum.
The Rams, while disappointed, will take heart from their contest last week with Wil Ridsdale, Ash Pekin and coach Sam Anson leading the way and Nathan Koenig again in the goals.
Laharum tripped up in a close and intense clash against Swifts last outing, coming unstuck in the final term after leading at the last change.
Tom Crawford, joint coaches Todd Heynen and Robbie Miller and Angus Martin featured prominently and Dan Griffiths kicked four goals. They will need to continue good form this week.
Firepower
Swifts have to put celebrations aside to focus on Saturday’s game, but would be confident of having too much firepower for Pimpinio at Pimpinio.
The Baggies have had a good start to the season and last week had Matt Healy, Ben Taylor and Seth Blake winning votes, while Andrew Cameron led goal-kickers with four.
Pimpinio can’t afford to drop its head and has the potential to come back hard through the likes of Brodie Mines, Liam Jakobi, Todd O’connor and Daniel Baker, who were game against heavy opposition last week.
Rupanyup, too good for Taylors Lake to the tune of 69 points last week, will back itself to beat Kalkee at home.
The Panthers are somewhere in the midfield mix and last week it was players such as Jaydon Walters, Hugh Mcmurtrie, Daniel Schaper and Scott Niewand who impressed votecard holders.
Kalkee will be no pushover, in fact it will also consider the contest a potential win.
The Kees need a four-quarter effort to challenge the Panthers after coach Hamish Exell, Daniel Schache, Ben Lawson and Blair Thomas stood up last game.
Another clash where both teams will consider opportunities to win will evolve between Noradjuha-quantong and Taylors Lake.
Both sides need to find more avenues to goal and more players to find consistency.
Jason Kerr, Shane Oakley and Tyler Bye flew the flag for the Bombers last week while Trae Martin, Addison Milner and Jack Mcrae backed up coach Jye Smith for the Lakers.