COULD this be the last hurrah for Koondrook Barham veteran Shane Guerra?
Raiders coach Neil Bradley has admitted he is unsure if the man who has appeared in 17 matches for the club this year will play on into 2017, making tomorrow’s clash even more vital for his side.
They go into the preliminary final clash against Nyah Nyah West United with a finals win already notched up over the club, but on their day the Demons can beat anyone.
It will be a tough battle at Tooleybuc for a spot to face Kerang, with the Demons moving through their first finals series in 10 years, while the Raiders are well versed at this time of year.
With the 45-year-old Guerra strapping up his boots again, coach Bradley said he wasn’t the main focus and was sure the stalwart would do his job.
“This could be his last game, we will just worry about each game and see what happens,” he said.
“Shane won’t be worried about it, he will do his job. We are pretty healthy and expect to win, it should be a good clash.
“We are super impressed with the Demons’ resilience and how their players stood up last week, it was very impressive.”
Nyah Nyah West coach Matt Campbell said his side could pop up with some surprises and a field a different side to their first week clash.
“We have a good roster to pick from and a few surprise packets might crop up… you never know, we have used a lot of players,” he said.
“We are a little more confident going into this than the first final, it was a bit of an unknown for us in the finals and and the way we won was really good.
“It shows you are never out of the game and if we play like that from the get go anything is possible.”
The Tigers had the Demons all but beat last week, until a careless hit from Kane Donnan changed the match and Nyah Nyah West United stormed home to win the match by a slim margin.
The Raiders also had the Blues on the ropes last week but the reigning premiers stormed back into the match.
Punters at the ground believed the rain may have affected the contest, but Bradley believes the game was already changing before that and his side needs to fix it before the Demons.
“When it rains it becomes a metres game and getting on the ball, and we didn’t do it good enough,” he said.
“We need to come in behind the ball and make it hard for the Demons to move the ball and stop their run down the field.”
