Only percentage separates fifth and sixth on the Bellarine Football League ladder and Barwon Heads coach Sam Schaller recognises that this Saturday’s game will probably decide who plays finals.
The Heads and Anglesea are both on seven wins with the former holding onto fifth spot by 14.35 percent.
The two teams play each other this week at Ellimata Reserve and with four rounds remaining, it is highly likely that the winner will play finals and the loser will miss out.
“It’s almost like an elimination final without the full repercussions of it,” Heads coach Schaller said.
“We’ve probably had one eye on that since the bye. It’s sort of an early finals test for us, so we’ll be keen to get down there and put in a good performance and hopefully come home with the four points to sort of set up the rest of it.
“We’re under no illusions that it’s like a genuine eight-pointer this weekend. So we don’t want to leave anything to chance and hope that they lose one or two more down the line. We just want to get down there and win this weekend.”
The Seagulls were tested by their arch rivals in round 14 and it took until the last quarter to run away with a 33-point win.
The Grubbers have won just two games this season, but were only five points down at the last change before Barwon Heads booted four goals to none in the final term.
“We touched on it during the week and then again in the pre-game about, you know myself personally being in their position in the past as a player when they were really good and we weren’t,” Schaller said.
“So you sort of got yourselves up for those two games of the year, just to do your community and your club proud.
“We knew that they’d be up and about, fresh off the bye as well. They were fantastic, especially in that first half. I thought our second-half was really good and probably maybe just showed our maturity compared to where they’re at.”
The Seagulls have a young list, like many teams in the competition, and fielded three 16-year-olds against the Grubbers. Particularly impressive was emerging ruckman Ollie Cincotta, who teamed brilliantly with Luke Davis.
For Ocean Grove, the injuries keep mounting.
Ben Bennet suffered a cut on his eyelid, Ryan Cook broke his finger and Jhdara Jones badly injured his ankle and could barely walk after the game.
“Jonesy tried to go on after half-time but couldn’t bear much weight in his ankle, so I suspect that will take a couple of weeks to get right given how sore he looked when we pulled him out of the game,” Ocean Grove coach Dave Farrell said.
“From the 10-minute mark of the first quarter, once we settled, I thought we played 50 minutes of really high quality footy. The ground and the game looked like we wanted it to.
“To score four goals in the second quarter into a really stiff breeze was a highlight and a great reference point for not needing to retreat or collapse defensively when under pressure as we have a number of times this year.”
However, defensive general Kyle Polley and ruckman Davis proved too strong in the air, with Polley taking numerous uncontested marks.
“Polley and Sticks (Davis) are great players, and we weren’t able to match them aerially as clearly we are light on for healthy talls at the moment,” Farrell said.
“While we weren’t able to generate a competitive score after halftime our young defensive group took another big step, the third quarter they were under fire but only gave up three scores from 18 inside 50s.”
The Grubbers have no doubt improved over the past month even with their lengthy injury list. Their best chance of a third win is this week at home against Newcomb before taking on the top three sides in the final rounds.
“Each week we are still seeing great energy and belief throughout the week and leading into games,” Farrell said.
“To play as well as we did for periods on Saturday will no doubt give the whole group confidence going into the last four rounds of the season. We’re excited about the opportunity this week, but without looking too far ahead, planning to draw as much as we can from games against the top three in the final three rounds of the year.”
