By Josip Zilic
After and an impressive three road trips on the trot North Geelong Warriors will look forward to a first home round this Saturday against equally impressive Altona Magic.
Altona has continued to elevate its form from last season with a couple of big wins early against Werribee and Sunshine followed by a scoreless draw against Melbourne Victory last weekend.
Altona boats a highly experienced squad with Marco Pistinizi and Melvin Becket for midfield creativity as well as the additional support of James McGarry looming large.
Under the guide of coach Goran Lozanovski the Altona line-up will undoubtedly be a strong challenge for the Warriors.
North Geelong will look to continue its good form after another win away to Brunswick in hot and blustery conditions last weekend.
The match had an element of physicality where the bigger bodies of Brunswick tried to unsettle the quick movement of the Warriors when out of possession.
However, the Warriors settled earlier and managed to apply goalmouth pressure in consecutive forays, leading to Darius Madison rounding the defence only to be upended as he cut into the box. The resulting spot kick being was dispatched by Dom Marafioti in the 32nd minute.
Just before half time another spot kick was awarded. This time Ryan Opperman followed up a Marafioti shot and was piled over in front of the referee. Madison took the spot kick but blazed wide.
The second half began with Brunswick now looking to combine more, managing to get around the wide defenders only for the final ball to be wasteful.
North Geelong held firm and as the 60th minute mark cranked over so too did the Warriors ’intensity, hitting Brunswick on the counter with quick and incisive balls to dangerous areas as the wind howling against the Brunswick goal kept its defence deeper.
With pressure mounting and 10 minutes to go, Brusnwick’s frustration crept in when Matt Murphy elbowed Madison as he charged into the box to give away the spot kick, which Anderson slammed in for the win.
Warriors coach Luciano Trani afterward called on supporters to rally behind his team.
“We’re in a very good position on the league table and all we want is the fans to come out and support the boys,” he said.
