By DAVID NAGEL
Casey Cardinia Football League
Preview – Round 5
ROC v PAKENHAM
A RELATIVELY lop-sided round looms in the CCFL this Saturday with match-of-the-day honours falling at Starling Road, where ROC welcomes its nearest neighbour Pakenham for the afternoon.
At first glance, the Kangaroos 65-point shellacking at the hands of Beaconsfield last week was their first major slip in momentum for the season. They were expected to really challenge the Eagles, but were blown away in one foul swoop in a devastating second quarter of football.
Brad Jones won’t be happy with the result, but he and his young charges can at least console themselves with the fact they were beaten by just six points in the remaining three quarters of footy.
With no lapse in concentration this week, the Kangas will provide the Lions with an enormous challenge.
ROC had the Lions right where it wanted them in the corresponding clash last year, before a last-quarter cameo by ruckman Kym Jones got the Lions across the line. Coach Steve O’Bryan remembers that game well and won’t be taking anything for granted on the weekend.
“We were lucky to come away with it last year, and we were playing good footy at the time,” O’Bryan said.
“They seem to have picked up a few players who have sparked them a little, but our boys are ready and prepared for it. We’re still not playing our best footy, but we just have to keep chipping away, and bit by bit we’ll get there.”
Pakenham should regain the services of full-back Nathan Brown, who has missed two games through injury, while Jason Fisher and Jake Barclay are closing in on their first games for the season. Brown’s inclusion is huge with rising star Matt Clark a focal point up forward for the Kangas.
It seems every week we talk about the importance of ROC’s young ruckman, Dylan Chapman, and once again he’ll be a key player. Doveton’s Frank D’Agostino one week, Beacy’s Scott Meyer the next, and this week it doesn’t get any easier with the giant Jones on the horizon.
Pakenham will have to play close to its best footy to get over the home side, but Brown’s inclusion and the form of Russ Lehman and O’Bryan through the middle of the ground should be enough to get the visitors home.
BEACONSFIELD v DOVETON
BEACONSFIELD needs to look back just over 12 months to realise this week’s game against Doveton at Holm Park Road presents real danger.
The Eagles ended the season as beaten preliminary finalists, but back on 27 April 2013, it was the Doves who walked away from the Eagles’ wind-swept new home ground with victory. Geez it was windy that day and you get the feeling Shannon Henwood would love nothing better than for similar conditions to prevail on Saturday.
The Doves are admirable at the moment, swallowing their pride and promoting youth for the betterment of the club down the track. It’s a mature call and means some real positives can be taken, even when the scoreboard might indicate that’s not possible at all.
It’s that positive attitude that will really be tested over the coming weeks, with Pakenham, Cranbourne, Narre Warren and Berwick providing huge tests following Beacy.
The Eagles are no doubt building and over the next few weeks will add some real class to their line-up. Damien Johnston will resume in the two this week while twin brother Daniel is only a couple of weeks away.
Beaconsfield won’t make the same mistake as last year and will win, with an acute focus on building its confidence ahead of a massive clash under lights with Cranbourne the following week.
It’s the Eagles by 60.
TOORADIN v NARRE WARREN
TOORADIN will be hoping it can extrapolate its brilliant three-quarter form into a fourth this week when the juggernaut called Narre Warren pays a visit to Westernport Oval.
Take a look at the ladder on this page and you’ll notice the eighth-placed Seagulls would be sitting third if all games in the CCFL knocked-off at three-quarter time this season.
Andy Clarke’s boys let a lead slip against Cranbourne on Anzac Day and then rolled over as if shot against Pakenham last week. Is it fitness or mental strength that lets the Seagulls down? Some of their players claim to be the fittest they’ve ever been -maybe it’s the overall fitness of the side that is of concern.
If Tooradin can lead Narre Warren at the final break this week, they should take a bow.
Matt Wade and Michael Hobbs will need to play blinders for that to happen, while Jake O’Donnell and Scotty Szucs will need to take their games to new levels.
Narre is purring at the moment, with no sign of complacency creeping in at all. Every contest in every minute of every game is treated like gold by the Magpies … they’re just enjoying the ride.
It’s a ride that will take them to an 80-point victory over the Seagulls on Saturday. Keysborough v Berwick
ONE of the off-chutes of becoming a powerhouse side in the competition is having an increased target on your back … Berwick needs to adjust to that when it travels to Keysborough on Saturday.
The next step for Rhys Nisbet and his side is to become ruthless, you know, just like Cranbourne and Narre Warren have been over the last few years, with the ability to confront the opposition’s best and then grind them into the dirt.
Setting that level of commitment, on a week-to-week basis, is important to Nisbet.
“Of course it is,” he said.
“Setting standards and meeting those standards is what this footy club is about now. Playing at Keysborough, it’s always difficult, a small ground, but we’re confident we can play well there. But the minute our work rate drops off, we know any side in this competition can get anyone.”
The praise for Berwick’s youngsters has been sung from the roof tops this year, and is well deserved, but unsung heroes like Nick Sear, Mick Manley and Tom Andrews deserve equal praise.
Keysborough work-horses like Geoff Humphreys, Danny Morland and Glen Hawthorn will once again give their all -they know no other way but will be over-run by 15 goals at the final siren.
HAMPTON PARK v CRANBOURNE
CRANBOURNE will bounce back to the winners’ list this Saturday when it makes the short trip to Hampton Park, but just what will it take home from the contest.
Coach Scott Sutherland was not impressed with the efforts of several of his players last week, and has promised to make changes, but getting a read on the capabilities of his newcomers might be a little difficult against the Redbacks.
If things go according to plan, the Eagles will win by 25 goals, all players will contribute heavily and the only way he’ll find out anything is to wait a week, to see who shines when Beaconsfield arrive under lights in round six.
Cranbourne is seriously depleted at the moment, and the fact it was still level with Berwick with just 10 minutes remaining last week, is a feather in its cap.
Take these names, Matt Thompson, Mat Fletcher, Ryan Davey, Ray George, Blake Pearce, Glenn Osborne and Leigh Holt out of any side and they’re sure to be effected.
Expect Marc Holt and Michael Theodoridis to boost their goal-kicking tallies significantly and for the Eagles to win big.
But what will they really take from the contest?
