NATHAN Ablett will be a big name inclusion when Balranald travels to Woorinen for a clash between two premiership contenders tomorrow.
The Geelong premiership player is a confirmed starter for the Roos, although there remained some doubt about Leyland Brougham, who was facing an overnight fitness test to take his place in the team.
Key defender Mitch Taylor makes a timely return for Woorinen, considering the home side will be without Ben Booth, who would have been the likely match up for in-form Balranald full-forward Ben Fuller.
It adds to the hype and intrigue surrounding the match at Woorinen, with outright second place and a firm grip on the double chance up for grabs.
Balranald won the previous meeting between the two teams back in Round 3, when they announced themselves as the real deal with a 16-point win, after holding a 55-point lead early in the last quarter.
But Woorinen coach Marcus Demaria was confident his team wouldn’t repeat the mistakes tomorrow.
“We’ll be better prepared with their aggression after the last time we played, they came at us hard and we weren’t prepared for it and we were just on the back foot all day,” Demaria told The Guardian.
“They got the jump on us that day and although we came home with a late flurry, they were still very impressive.
“We’ll be better prepared this time around and try to nullify some of their better players, like Jydon (Neagle), (Ethan) Gant in the middle and (Ben) Fuller and Drew Lloyd up forward.
“They have an abundance of talented players, so we’ll just have to work out which ones we prioritise because you can’t stop them all.”
A key match-up will be in the ruck, where Balranald will be looking to keep Lachlan Gardner in check after he took the points in his battle with Jordan Wilkins earlier this season.
The two big men have both enjoyed pivotal roles for their clubs this season.
Roos coach Neagle hoped his team’s defensive mindset, combined with their outside run, would be good enough to get the job done again tomorrow.
“For us, it’s about being consistent in our defence and covering all their attacking weapons, because they’re obviously a pretty good team when they’re going forward,” Neagle said.
“At the same time, if we can get them on the inside and use our run and spread, that should hold us in good stead across 120 minutes.
“We match up pretty similar against each other, but the team that executes better should most likely win the game.
“We know they (Woorinen) like to set up behind the ball and force you to kick long down the line and then expose teams going the other way, so we need to be mindful of that, play some possession footy and try and make them defend as best we can.”
Both teams are on six game winning streaks, although Woorinen was given a big scare last week, with a late Will Collicoat goal giving them a two-point win over Cohuna last Saturday.
Demaria said they had addressed some of the areas that let them down last weekend.
“We need a big game from our forwards, I don’t think we’ve looked dangerous enough at times down there, but we also have to use the ball a lot better than what we did last weekend going inside our forward 50,” he said.
“I felt we squandered opportunities constantly all day and we’ve addressed that throughout the week.”
While the tighter Woorinen oval may play to the advantage of Balranald, expect the Tigers to keep a tighter rein on the Roos this time around, starting at the first bounce.
Tip – Balranald to win by five points.
KEY MATCH-UP
Ben Fuller v Mitch Taylor/Doug Beames/Matt Gardner
The first question is who gets the job on Fuller – the second is how do they stop him?
Ben Booth would have been the perfect opponent, but he won’t be there, so who is the next cab off the rank?
Matt Gardner seems to be the Mr Fixit for Woorinen and certainly has the capabilities to do the job, so perhaps he gets first crack, even though Taylor and Beames are perhaps better suited in terms of their physical qualities.
No matter who gets the job, if Woorinen want to win, they need to keep Fuller to no more than three goals.
THE BURNING QUESTION
How do the Tigers stop Jydon Neagle?
In all honesty, I don’t think he can be stopped.
If you try and tag him, he just drags his opponent forward.
Stand a negating defender next to him, and he just moves to half back.
There really is no answer to stopping the reigning Jack Betts Medallist, who is arguably the league’s best and most dynamic player.
So much of the Roos ability to hit the scoreboard comes from the boot of Neagle, so Woorinen certainly need to put some time into nullifying him.
Perhaps the best play is to go head-to-head, with Jye Barry also in scintillating form, and try and hurt Balranald going back the other way.
