THE Bendigo Pioneers will be looking to the future when they play their final game of the TAC Cup season.
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The Pioneers will take on the Gippsland Power at Carlton’s IKON Park on Saturday, with the team to feature 18 bottom-age players.
Saturday’s matches feature the four teams – Bendigo, Gippsland, Western and Northern – that didn’t finish in the top eight, while the finalists all have a week off.
“We’ll be giving a lot of our young guys a chance to get a taste of it, so we’re certainly using it as a development game looking towards next year,” Pioneers coach Brett Henderson said on Friday.
“We’ll have 18 bottom-age players in, which is really exciting for the club.”
Among Saturday’s team will be two first-gamers in Derek Smith from Wentworth and Leyton Chisholm from Kyneton.
The only top-age players who will take the field are Riley Saunders, captain Joe Atley, Braidon Blake, Nathan Twigg and Fergus Greene.
“There will be a lot of positives that will come out of Saturday’s game, whichever way it goes,” Henderson said.
“Looking at Gippsland’s side, they have a really good team in with a lot of top-age players, so it’s going to be a great opportunity for our boys to play against some quality opposition.
“Someone like Paddy Dow is going to get the chance to play on a Ben Ainsworth, who is a chance of going top five in the draft, so that will be a great experience.”
The Pioneers have won four games this season, one of which was a 43-point victory over Gippsland at the QEO in round two.
Saturday’s game starts at 2pm.