IF playing for their season wasn’t enough incentive for White Hills, then the Demons have a bit extra motivation on Sunday against Huntly.
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The Heathcote District league elimination final at Colbinabbin will double as the 200th senior game for Demons’ stalwart David Wright.
“It has been a great privilege to get to know Dave,” first-year White Hills coach Brent Millar said this week.
“He loves the footy club and it’s not just what he does on the field, he and his partner Alana do an absolute power of work off the field.
“He’s one of those heart-and-soul players of the club who all the boys love to play with.”
The Demons look to have their work cut out for them on Sunday to keep their season alive against the Hawks.
They head into Sunday with just one win in their past six games – against wooden-spoon side Mount Pleasant last week – but Millar says his side is ready to embrace the challenge of a return to finals football.
“We acknowledge the form may not read great on paper, but we’ve got a group of young kids excited about finals football and you just never know what can happen,” Millar said.
“The boys will go into Sunday with the belief they can win, there’s no worries about that.”
The Demons have already beaten Huntly once this season, upsetting the Hawks by 19 points in round three.
The Hawks won the return bout by 55 points in what was the start of a stretch of five losses in a row for the Demons before getting back on the winner’s list last week.
While the Demons will be missing a string of injured key players including co-captain Jake Ward, Matt Lehane, Levi Middleton and Kris Bedford, the Hawks will be at full strength and coming off three resounding wins in a row by margins of 107, 123 and 121 points.
“We’re going to put our strongest side of the year on the park this weekend... for the first time this year we’ve got a full list to choose from and we’ve been able to get two or three games now into players who have missed a lot of footy,” Huntly co-coach Jamie Hogan said.
“Jaydon Cowling, Jack Daley, Tom Skewes and Luke Semmel have all come back into our side over the past few weeks, so there will be no excuses for us on Sunday.”
• How they match up:
Huntly:
Record – 10-6
Average for – 117
Average against – 82
Quarters won – 44/64
White Hills:
Record – 7-9
Average for – 88
Average against – 94
Quarters won – 26/64
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• Just as White Hills will go in as rank underdogs in the elimination final, so too will Colbinabbin in Saturday’s qualifying final.
The Grasshoppers take on Leitchville-Gunbower – an opponent that finished four games and 153 per cent ahead of them on the ladder – at Huntly.
Colbinabbin is coming off the bye last week and coach Nick Knight is keen to make sure the Grasshoppers don’t make a sluggish start after the week off.
“It’s a bit of an unknown in terms of how we start up again against a quality outfit like Leitchville,” Knight said.
“We’ve had a look at Leitchville over the past few weeks and have some plans in place that we’ll be aiming to execute.”
The Grasshoppers lost both home and away encounters against the Bombers by 48 and 30 points – both games well below Leitchville-Gunbower’s average margin in its 15 wins of 107 points.
“We made some simple errors against them last time that hurt us. They are a side that really makes you pay when you turn the ball over, so we’ll certainly be mindful of that,” Knight said.
The Bombers – runners-up the past two years – will ride the momentum of a 10-game winning streak into the finals.
“We’re obviously really pleased with the form the team is in and having a strong list to pick from that is in good nick,” Bombers coach Matt Hawken said.
“We know Colbinabbin is a well-organised side that competes really hard, will bring A-grade effort and is very strong defensively, so we’re expecting a tough battle over four quarters.”
• How they match up:
Leitchville-Gunbower:
Record – 15-1
Average for – 146
Average against – 50
Quarters won – 56/64
Colbinabbin:
Record – 11-5
Average for – 94
Average against – 67
Quarters won – 38/64
Saturday’s and Sunday’s senior finals start at 2.15pm.