A DESPERATE Gisborne, stung by a disappointing performance last week, will be fighting for its place back in the Bendigo Football League top five on Saturday against Strathfieldsaye.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Bulldogs coughed up third spot on the ladder last Saturday when beaten by Sandhurst by 39 points, with the defeat sending Gisborne to sixth.
Gisborne coach Kevin Fitzgerald was furious with his side’s performance, apologising to club supporters afterwards.
But the round 15 clash at Gardiner Reserve presents the Bulldogs with an opportunity to get back on track against another of the BFL’s “big six” in the Storm.
“It’s a massive game for us... we knew that even before we got beaten last week,” Fitzgerald said.
“It has been a fairly long week as you’d expect, but we can only do what we can do tomorrow and, hopefully, that’s good enough.
“Last week really stung, but it wasn’t through a lack of effort... we just played dumb football.
“There’s enough players there who have played enough football now to know what’s going wrong and be able to adjust during a game, but we didn’t have that last week.”
The revolving door that has been the Gisborne side has continued this week with another four changes for this contest.
In comes key forward Matthew Knox, Ben Sullivan, Jarryd Vernon and Ben Grech.
Out are Luke Saunders (knee), Eamon McKenna (ankle), Mark Maric and Ethan Minns.
“It has been a problem all year with those team changes,” Fitzgerald said.
“We’ve had four, five or six changes at times, which has made it really difficult for blokes to play together and work for each other when they’re constantly in and out.
“That has been one of the most frustrating parts of the season, whereas last year we were able to get a side on the park each week with only one or two changes.”
