THE Golden Rivers season will return to the start on Saturday afternoon, when unbeaten Ultima hosts a dangerous Hay side intent on causing another upset.
In their round 1 meeting, the Roos secured a six-point win in wet and inclement conditions.
That come-from-behind victory, with four unanswered final-quarter goals, helped build their confidence and kick-started a six-game win streak.
While Hay were close as any side to beating Ultima so far this season, coach Mick Cattanach told The Guardian there was very little that could be gleaned from that afternoon and expected this game to be played in a very different way.
“It was tough conditions and, being round 1, both teams were still getting settled,” Cattanach said.
“It was the first time a lot of their new recruits had probably played together for them.
“We’re probably missing three or four guys from that game with injury (on Saturday) as well, but we’ll go in confident that we’re in a better place than we were when we first played them.”
Luke Arandt, Dom Booth and Andrew Low will be among those missing, with both Arandt and Booth succumbing to injuries sustained during the Lions’ 50-point win over Murrabit last Saturday.
Arandt will be a big loss, with the in-form ruckman’s absence set to leave James Moran one out to compete against Ultima’s Luke Doolan and Jye Purtill, although Hugh Crighton will return for Hay.
The Roos will also be forced into making a change, with Zac Cattlin set to miss with an ankle injury, while Jake Foster will return after missing last weekend’s 47-point win over Wandella.
Ultima coach Kyle Symons was expecting an equally tough match to round 1 when the two sides meet again, regardless of who is and isn’t available for the Lions.
“They’re always a hard side to come up against, they play a tough brand of footy and it looks like all their new blokes are starting to click a bit,” Symons said.
“The boys are keen to get another look at them again. I think they’ll be a much better side this time around with a few extra games under their belt, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
“That said, I think we are a better side than we were in round 1 too, we had a very different side last time and we’re all just starting to gel, so we’ll be better prepared as well.”
With Foster returning to combine with Mitch Seton-Stewart and Tom Bull, and Booth and Arandt both out of the midfield for Hay, it’s expected that the home side will have a significant advantage in winning the ball out of the middle.
But while all signs might be pointing towards a Roos victory, Cattanach is hoping the Lions’ system and ability to scrap could give them a point of difference.
“We want to be a team that’s really strong in the contested footy environment and really make sure that we’re winning the ball at the source,” Cattanach said.
“Unfortunately, Ultima beat us (in round 1) in that area, I felt they were really strong in close in the midfield and showed us the way to go about it in that regard.
“From our perspective, we just want to compete at the source and make sure we’re keeping the game played in tight and hopefully, if we can do that, we’ll win our share of the footy and go from there.”
The other game of major interest will be at Macorna, with the fourth-placed Tigers taking on the fifth-placed Wandella.
While Ultima’s resurgence has been one of the stories of the season so far, so too has the Bombers fall from grace, with the perennial finalists finding themselves outside the top four and in danger of slipping behind in the finals race.
This week is shaping as a must-win game for them, with a loss putting them two games and percentage outside of the four and at real risk of not seeing finals action for the first time in a long time.
It’s a similarly important game for Macorna however, who could quickly see themselves as the team at risk should they lose to the Bombers.
Murrabit will clash with Moulamein, with the bottom-of-the-ladder Blues still chasing their first win of the season.
