WHILE it is the season for hunting Easter eggs, Wangaratta Rovers are on the trail of a far more dangerous target.
Good Friday footy sees the Rovers host the ever-competitive Albury Tigers at W.J. Findlay Oval, and the senior showdown has all the makings of a thriller.
After losing their opening round derby clash, the Hawks held off a fiery North Albury Hoppers outfit last weekend, taking their first win 10.11 (71) to 6.9 (45).
Rovers coach Sam Murray said the performance against the Hoppers was the brand they were hoping to consistently produce throughout the year, and against the Tigers this round.
“We weren’t over the moon with our first-up performance, but we were really realistic that it’s a very small percentage of our season and we understood the things we had to get right,” he said.
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“We thought we brought that on the weekend and did them really well.
“I think our efficiency was high, so the ball wasn’t going in and coming out a lot.
“We had about 40 inside 50s and about 20 scoring shots – we were scoring at around 40 per cent of the time we went in, meaning the ball wasn’t transitioning between the arcs as much.
“At the same time, we controlled the footy a lot more, we weren’t playing as fast a game, meaning the ball was moving its way up the field but it wasn’t a super high inside 50 game.”
The Tigers will no doubt have their tails up after a tremendous come-from-behind win over Yarrawonga last weekend, and will fancy themselves to knock off the reigning premiers.
“We’re pretty aware of what their list looks like, we’ve played them enough and I’ve been around this league enough to have a pretty good understanding of what they put up, but they’ve also brought in some new players,” Murray said.
“Ryan Garthwaite seemed to play pretty well on the weekend, and they’ve got some young guys who we haven’t seen before, so we had to do a little bit of looking into it.
“We had a look at what they did, they’ve obviously got a big guy in the middle, Isaac Muller, who you’ve got to put a lot of time and effort into to make sure we can stop his influence.
“Albury have always traditionally had a really good centre and it looks like that hasn’t changed, so we’re going to have to make sure we’re at our best.”
As one of only two Good Friday fixtures in the O&M, and with the calibre of the contest, the eyes of the local footy fans will be fixed on W. J. Findlay Oval.
Murray said his boys were eager for the battle, with stars like Kieran Parnell sure to have a major influence on the final result.
“Kieran’s performance was really good, you can tell he’s just played a full season in Darwin by his touch and reading of the football and awareness,” Murray said.
“We’re hoping for a really good performance again this week.
“It was good to see Ed [Dayman] getting back to his best, I still think there’s a lot that Ed can bring - he obviously had a little bit of an injury in the first round and overcame that in round two and was instrumental for us.
“Across the board, even our younger players, Jai Dal Zotto, Noah Scholte played better games of football which is really important.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge, it’s going to be a good one, and a standalone Friday game is exciting.”
The Rovers host Albury Tigers at W. J. Findlay Oval on Good Friday, with senior footy from 2pm.
Elsewhere, Wangaratta Magpies head off to Lonsdale Oval, Mulwala, to take on a Yarrawonga Pigeons outfit eager to post their first win of the season.
