The Weekly Advertiser Horsham

Undefeated Eagles earn weekend off

- BY JONATHAN BOX

With seven Mininera and District league teams playing their final game of the season last week, the top-five are preparing for the business end of the season.

After a stellar, undefeated season, the Ararat Eagles have earned themselves a week off, having finished on top of the ladder.

This will give players a chance to recoup and prepare for their finals campaign.

Finishing second and third on the ladder, Tatyoon and Lismore-derrinallu­m meet at Woorndoo in Saturday’s qualifying final.

The teams only met one other time in the regular season, with Tatyoon coming away with a 19-point win. The Hawks came out firing, booting 6.6 in the first quarter to more than double the Demons’ score.

Although Lismore-derrinallu­m managed to stick with Taty and even outscore them in the next two quarters, they could not reel them back in after the good start.

Both teams have made regular appearance­s in finals in recent years and show that when it comes to finals, they can get the job done.

All eyes will be on gun players such as Tatyoon’s Anthony Rosato, Sean Mcdougall, William Henderson and Kieran Collins and Lismore-derrinallu­m’s Beau Ketchen, Lachlan Isbister, Charlie Brett and Michael Lockyer, who is fresh off kicking his 100th goal for the season.

In this weekend’s other game, the eliminatio­n final on Sunday at Lismore, fourthplac­ed Woorndoo-mortlake will do battle with fifth-placed Glenthomps­on-dunkeld.

The teams have also only met the once this season, with Woorndoo-mortlake coming away with a 30-point win.

Although both teams had the same amount of scoring shots, the Tigers were able to capitalise on their time in front of goal.

Since their meeting, however, both teams have been on-song, with the Tigers winning four of their past six games; while the Rams have managed five wins from six games.

Tyler Staude, Andrew and Matt Lowe and Chris Mcleod will play a pivotal role for the Rams, while the Tigers will look to Sam Gervasoni, William Paulin, Keilan Webster-bamford and Jordan Buckley.

In other games, Saturday’s qualifying final will see Lismore-derrinallu­m and Glenthomps­on-dunkeld play off in the reserves, while in under-16.5s, Caramut plays Tatyoon.

In Sunday’s eliminatio­n final, Ararat Eagles take on SMW Rovers in the reserves, while in the under-16.5s it will be Moyston-willaura and Hawkesdale-macarthur who do battle in the do-or-die contest.

Both Tatyoon’s reserves team and Penshurst’s under 16.5 team have earned the week off, both finishing on top of the ladder in their respective grades.

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