WANDELLA will be aiming to avoid a repeat of their round 1 capitulation to Ultima when the two clubs meet again to begin the second phase of the Golden Rivers season tomorrow afternoon.
The Roos ran away comfortable 51-point winners in the opening match of the season thanks largely to a dominant third quarter, with onballer Darcy Farrell a key factor in the victory.
Although Ultima have continued on their winning ways since that match, with a four win, one loss record to start the year, the Bombers have also shown themselves to be a much-improved version in recent weeks, having won three of their past four matches including a comprehensive 49-point win over Moulamein last Saturday.
That win over the Swans didn’t go unnoticed out in the Mallee, with Ultima co-coach Mitch Seton-Stewart expecting a fired up and competitive Bombers outfit to await his side tomorrow.
“It’s always a bit of an unknown playing everyone for the first time, but after you play them once you get a bit of an idea of their game plan and key players and the like,” Seton-Stewart said.
“That said, I think Wandella will be a very different team this time around, they’ve had some good wins since then and have a few new blokes come into the team as well.
“They’re a different team when they play at home too.
“Everyone knows the old saying about having the home ground advantage and Wandella are a team that play their ground quite well.”
Ultima are expected to go into tomorrow’s match with a largely unchanged line-up from the team that defeated Macorna by 54 points last Saturday.
Wandella will also have a similar team to last weekend, with Laing Waddingham set to return to help bolster their key position stocks.
While the Bombers are expected to put up a much tougher fight tomorrow, there are still learnings that can be taken from that round 1 game, according to Wandella coach Justin Robinson, with his team set to make some adjustments ahead of tomorrows encounter.
“They (Ultima) damaged us across half back last time,” Robinson said.
“We’ll be hoping to not kick to their tall half back line in Caillum Brady, ‘Frosty’ (Lincoln Frost) and (Matt) Taverna.
“We need to move the ball a bit shorter through the middle of the ground and then look to get long entries, rather than kicking shallow forward 50 entries like we did last time.
“If we’re smarter with our ball movement then we’ll give ourselves a chance, but we also have to stop some of their midfielders too, like Tom Bull who’s pretty hard to stop when he’s running through the middle at speed.”
With Wandella breathing down Ultima’s neck in the battle for second spot, Seton-Stewart also knows the start to tomorrow’s game will be crucial, with the Roos needing to get on top early in order to nullify the Bombers midfield runners.
“They like to use their handball game a fair bit with the overlap run and trying to get run from their half back line,” Seton-Stewart said.
“We know every week we have to bring our pressure from the start, we can’t allow any team to get a bit of a jump in the first quarter and tomorrow will be no different.
“We have to bring that pressure from the start and really try to force them into kicking long down the line and into our hands so that we can make them pay that way from their turnovers.”
While Ultima’s midfield of Bull, Farrell, Seton-Stewart and Jake Foster will need to be contained by the Bombers, the Roos will need to find a way to stop Wandella’s in-form players Nathan Boysen, Archer Lancaster and Darcy Ramage, who have all been consistently named among their team’s better players over the first five rounds of the season.
Tomorrow also looms as being a big day for Moulamein, who with just one win from their first five matches will be hosting the unbeaten ladder leaders Hay this weekend.
Although the Swans will go into tomorrow’s match as underdogs, they will be hoping to start to gain momentum in the return matches as their new squad continues to gel together.
Last Saturday’s second half fade-out to Wandella would have disappointed the Moulamein coaching hierarchy and although their task won’t be any easier against the premiership favourites, a strong performance could well lift their confidence as they head towards the second half of the season.
Also in action this weekend will be Murrabit and Macorna, with the fourth placed Blues also looking to atone for a disappointing performance against Ultima last weekend.
The Tigers had no answer for Adam Thomson back in round 1, with the small forward kicking four goals in the 21-point win.
