Imperials v Tailem Bend

Imperials, with Tyson Wait and Ryan Eyre on zone duty at Port Pirie and with a truckload of injuries, are vulnerable against Tailem Bend on Saturday.

There is a chance that Blake Harrowfield, Dion Newell and Ryan Edwards will be back, but the odds of regaining Jamie Honnor, “Leo” Seyers and Henry Hodge in the next couple of weeks are quite slim.

Tailem Bend desperately need the win to keep their finals aspirations alive.

The loss of Tony Lynch through suspension doesn’t help their cause, as he is a seasoned player.

It wasn’t so long ago Laurie Rankine, Michael Sumner and “Crunchy “ Aspel all lined at Imperials, but these days they don the blue and gold with the Eagles, but they haven’t had the impact that Tailem Bend were hoping for.

Tailem Bend, with the exception of last week against the worst defence in the southern hemisphere, can’t kick enough goals.

Even last week the twenty goals they kicked didn’t get the money.

Imperials are down on talent at the minute, with all their gun players missing with injury.

It is testing their depth, but they will gradually regain them in the next few weeks in time for finals.

It’s better to be without them now than in September.

Tailem Bend would need to pull a surprise to pinch this one.

Coach Mathew Dent is staring down the barrel in his third season, he has to win to salvage his reputation and Saturday represents his best chance in years.

The Eagles, with Damien Raidis, Brad Bell, Dylan Hogarth and the big man Patrick Gabb are the Blues’ danger men, but Dent needs the Rankine/Sumner combination to fire to get them up.

The late mail says they won’t play against their old club, as they have both come down with a mystery illness pre-game.

Are the Eagles playing for the coach?

Saturday is a chance to show him by getting a win against a wounded opponent. The Blues are hemorrhaging and it’s up to Tony Fielke to stop the bleeding.

Imps will get the money with Luke Harrowfield and Shaun O’Brien up forward, the runners in Ash Temby and Daniel Girdham to supply them and with the critics in full flight on “Can Hill” behind them, they will get them home.

I would expect the coaching staff at Imperials to give a massive sigh of relief at the conclusion of this game, as they know a win will shut the self-doubters up for at least a few more days.

Some of the Imperials supporters push themselves into the victim’s role, they drop a game and it’s always the coach’s fault or the umpires.

How about looking in the mirror and looking at the real reasons?

This is not the AFL where you have a truckload of replacements, you have to go with what you have got and that what makes coaching such a difficult job.

Your club is not the first club to suffer a truckload of injuries and you won’t be the last.

Don’t talk about who you have got out, talk about those you have got in.

Imperials by 21 to 30 points.

Meningie v Mypolonga

The Tigers take the road trip to Meningie in a very nervous frame of mind.

They take the trip without two of their finest in captain James Pedler and the promising Scott Meneghetti, who will be playing zone football at Port Pirie.

The Tigers’ season is on the line, they would have pencilled this one in for a win weeks ago, but now I’m not so sure.

The difference between the teams is Brad Martin.

Brad goes to bed on Friday night prior to every Meningie game and wakes up knowing he is in for a big day.

In the last four outings against the Bears he has kicked 38 goals, averaging nearly ten every time he steps out.

Meningie appear powerless to stop him.

The Tigers had better hope his run continues, because the rest of them are playing from memory.

They are coming off a bye and a belting from Mannum and without their spiritual leader “Big Jim” to guide them home no wonder they are a tad nervous.

Coach Damien Cross is hanging on by a thread, because his contract is up for renewal at season’s end.

He is no certainty to retain the position, but as poor as the Tigers’ season has been, they are only one good win away from a finals berth.

Meningie, it’s about time you stopped being good blokes.

Draw a line in the sand Saturday and you’re a silly chance.

Its two young teams going head to head, but Meningie need Josh Benbow, Ryan Mallard and Josh Robinson to crank up to get a result.

Benbow has gone off the boil, at the start of the season he was confident, but he has dropped off and is not playing with the same authority.

The Bears never know if Dean Rossi and Michael Arbon are available until the last minute.

They might be handy, but they are not committed to the cause and it affects the team’s stability.

It’s a winnable game for Meningie, but the Tigers have got their season on the line and with the Bears’ bogey man Brad Martin averaging ten, I reckon the Tigers can sneak home.

Mypolonga by 11 to 20 points.