It will be an intense battle for a first win of the season when the Mathoura Timbercutters and Blighty Redeyes go head-to-head at Mathoura tomorrow.

In what may be referred to as a ‘spoon bowl’ in both the senior and reserves football, the two bottom placed sides in the Picola League play off in round 14.

Both clubs will be determined to avoid getting the competition’s proverbial wooden spoon between the last remaining winless teams.

Mathoura coach Adam Bourke said his side have been getting closer to a win each round, but their last match was a 38 point loss to Rennie three weeks ago.

“I thought we were unlucky to not come away with the result against Rennie,” he said.

“It was the most competitive we’ve been all year, and I thought we were genuinely in the contest all day, and we started really well.

“We just didn’t get any reward for effort on the scoreboard, as we weren’t able to convert our forward 50 entries and get the scores on the scoreboard.

“We haven’t really had any key forwards able to clunk marks and make the most of our forward 50 entries.

“Against Rennie we had our big centre-half forward Jake Rawe who took some marks, but he was a bit of a lone hand up forward for us kicking a couple of goals.

“I think most of us felt that we should have been up at half-time, but instead we were a couple of goals down.

“They were then up around 17 points at three-quarter time, and we probably just missed our opportunities. They converted and we didn’t.”

Like in the game against Rennie, Bourke said Mathoura will be the “massive underdogs” against Blighty.

“We are the underdogs - as we were against Rennie, and have been all year - but we’ll be looking to get our first win.

“Our aim is to try and get the job done.

“If we play to our structures and reduce how often we turn the ball over, particularly with our forward 50 entries, we’ll give ourselves a chance.”

The main challenge for Mathoura will be in being ready to play, after a club bye followed immediately by last week’s league wide bye.

“Our boys definitely needed a couple of weeks off to have a break and rest up, but two weeks is a long time.

“Hopefully, over that time, they’ve been handling the footy and doing a little bit. If not, they’re probably going to be a bit rusty after two weeks off, as they were at training on Tuesday night.

“Hopefully, we can fix some of that rust and start to convert our inside 50s and hit our targets.

“The main thing I’m really conscious of, in trying to get the win this week, is trying to win the turnover battle.

“If we tick that box with the turnovers and stay disciplined, I think the Timbercutters will be a good chance to get our first win of the season.”

The Blighty Redeyes also had Rennie as their last opponent before the league bye, going down by six points.

Blighty coach Dane Leyden said while the side has been showing steady improvement, with continued improvement of discipline key to a top performance.

“First of all, we can’t be too happy with a loss.

“I felt like we gave away a few free kicks late, and we were a bit undisciplined in that regard, which hurt us. I put up my hand up and take responsibility for that.

“It’s disappointing not to win and is hard to take, but good for Rennie, they're probably on a similar level to us.”

Leyden said while the Redeyes might be favourites tomorrow based on the season's results so far, Blighty do not want to get too far ahead of themselves.

“You can look at past results, but at the end of the day, they want to win just as badly as we want to win.

“I hope the desperation of a win being right there comes through, and we show how badly we want it by focusing on getting the footy, not looking forward to getting a win but by wanting the footy and really concentrating on each moment.

“The last four or so weeks, I’d like to think we’ve shown we’ve been able to be more competitive and put in a full four quarter performances.”

Leyden said the Redeyes have been training hard in preparation for tomorrow, with player excitement potentially leading to some tough line-up decisions.

“We had some good numbers on the track on Tuesday.

“We had a fair few who missed the previous week as they were all keen to have a week off, which is fair enough, but hopefully some of the young blokes didn’t get too loose.

“With us being a chance this week, and the twos probably thinking the same, the trouble is that we could get plenty of numbers on Thursday night.

“A couple of players that might be keen to play in the first win of the season might have to miss out this week, which is unfortunate, but that is all part of it.”

Deniliquin Pastoral Times Google News Panels

Friday, 18th August 2023

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