THE Swan Hill Soccer League will be aiming to continue their title defence when the men’s team hosts Deniliquin Wanderers at the Ken Harrison Reserve on Sunday.
It will be a big day for the club, as they host all four BASL Division 2 men’s and women’s semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history.
The main event will be the Swans’ grand final rematch against the Wanderers at 2pm.
In last year’s decider, an extra-time strike from Conner Brown broke the deadlock to give Swan Hill a 3-2 victory.
But while the Swans went through last season undefeated, it has been a very different scenario this year, with several injuries to key players and a fourth-placed home-and-away finish, seven points about Deniliquin in fifth.
Having defeated the Wanderers 3-1 on both occasions this season, Swan Hill will be confident of continuing their finals run.
But men’s coach Tony Di Palma said his side were well aware of what was ahead.
“With several new teams in the competition this season the quality has certainly gone up a level, but we’ve given ourselves a chance and we know our best is good enough,” Di Palma told The Guardian this week.
“We’ll go into Sunday’s game knowing if we play at our best we’ll give ourselves a good chance, but in terms of the finals we know we’re the underdogs.
“We won’t take any game for granted, we’ll be going into each game with a positive attitude and try to win it, starting on Sunday.
“Considering the injuries that we’ve had over the past couple of months, the boys have really stood up.
“Our game two weeks ago against La Trobe Red showed the depth we have, in that we had players come into our starting side and play different roles, and play them very well.
“But in saying that, we’re going to have a fresh team this week with everyone back from injury and hopefully we get the win.”
Expected returns included Jason Stokes, George Hardwell, Jake Cameron and Jim De Gregorio, while Cooper Fox was set to return to the midfield after overcoming a hamstring strain.
The clubs under-16 boys team will kick off the weekend on Saturday, when they host Border Raiders FC at Ken Harrison Reserve in the first semi-final.
The two teams met at the same venue last Saturday, a 1-1 draw.
Swan Hill’s Sonny Tucker levelled the scores in the 53rd minute after Charlie Mundie put the Raiders in front with a first-half penalty.
The Swans will be needing big performances from skipper Bailey Johnson and striker Tucker, along with contributions through defence and midfield from Tom Clarke, Marcus Orlando and Mustafa Aslam, with extra time and penalties to be used if the two teams can’t be separated this time.
The winner will go through to next Saturday’s qualifying final to play the loser of Castlemaine Goldfields Gold and Spring Gully Red, while for the loser it will be the end of the road.
