“ELIMINATION FINAL” SCENARIO FOR BOMBERS
By Louie Bulzomi
After Cardross’s impressive win over Bambill last week, Euston’s finals aspirations are all but gone – even if they can get over the Lions at Henshilwood Oval.
The Bombers currently sit a win and 12.23% behind Cardross in the battle for fourth spot; virtually two games out. So if they somehow manage to defeat the highly inform Gol Gol away in the final round, they would still require the winless Nangiloc to upset the Lions, as the percentage gap seems too much to bridge.
First things first, however – beating Cardross. All of Euston’s keys need to fire on all cylinders (namely Joseph Denaro, Josh Healy, Ian Mennie, Linden Duryea, Anthony McMahon, Tom Healy, Phil Connell and Coach Toby Quirk-Meeks), and their ‘under the radar’ types (Cleon Hannah, Daniel Curran, Zane Hammet, Chris Moore, Bryce Denaro etc.) must play their part in quelling leading Lions Ben Ransome, Andrew Ferguson, Jayden Boehm, Michael Laird, Tom Wallace, Jake Zoch, Damien Spicer and Brady Dalla Santa.
Unfortunately, such form has been few and far between this season for the Bombers, and with Cardross’s confidence sky-high, it may well be “bye-bye Bombers” for 2012.
Bambill will be looking to rediscover what it takes to defeat Gol Gol when they meet at Mildura Senior College.
The Hawks had no issue in disposing of the Saints in Rounds 5 and 10 at Carramar Drive, recording 44 and 90 point wins respectively. Sonny Lindsey managed 15 goals overall in those matches, while for Bambill only Luke Keating (Round 5) and Ryan McClelland (Round 10) could kick more than one.
The Saints are home this time, but they haven’t been invincible there (having lost to Werrimull twice). And given that the forward force of Lindsey, Kaleb Sherwell and Nick Rodi is in full swing, Clint Burdett, David Gray, Tony Albert and Tim Vandenberg are in scintillating form, and Tim Murphy is proving a revelation in the ruck, Gol Gol won’t hold any fears.
So Bambill will need all of McClelland, Robbie Morgan, David Hall, Simon Kelly, Justin Merrett, Jarratt Farley, Michael Hickey, Andrew Ross and Andrew Gibson to be at their premiership-winning best (and hope that Luke Hubble and Steve Sellens play after missing and copping a heavy facial hit last week respectively) to have a chance.
It wouldn’t be the first time in Australian Rules Football that a wooden spooner achieves its sole victory over the ladder leaders (think Fitzroy over Geelong in the VFL in 1963), but the probability of Nangiloc doing this to Werrimull at home is minute at best.
It’s not that the Demons don’t have the ability to take down the Magpies. Looking back to Round 10, they trailed by just seven points at three-quarter time and appeared to have enough momentum to get over the line until a clash of teammates that saw Scott Golding stretchered off and another lack of interchange backup caused them to tire in the final term.
Be assured that the usual crew of Golding, Cameron Peters, Ben Crosbie, Jared Turvey, Luke Collett, Luke Weaver, Ben Mansell, Luke Stone and Coach Jamie Riordan will fight to the finish in this one. But with no Tristan Stephens, Cameron Cox, David Keens, Kurt Freer and Brad Johnson, Nangiloc will again struggle to have the depth to cover Werrimull’s best (especially Mark and Brad Duscher, Adam Thomson, Ryan Tierney, Paul Jenkins, Aaron Milner, Michael Harradine, Dan Smith, Mark Thornton and Jay Savage).
Last Modified on 08/08/2012 19:35