AFTER a pair of near-misses in their past two games at the Queen Elizabeth Oval, the Bendigo Gold will be striving for third time lucky on Saturday night.
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The Gold are back on home turf on Saturday night to take on Richmond in round 18 of the VFL.
While the Gold remains winless, they have proven no pushover in their past two QEO games.
In round 14 they lost to the Casey Scorpions by two points, which followed a five-point defeat to the Northern Blues in round 11.
“The boys really enjoy playing in front of their home crowd and have obviously been really close the past couple of times at the QEO,” Gold coach Aussie Jones said on Friday.
“We know what’s going to happen in a couple of weeks that the club will cease to exist and we’re going into every game treating it like a grand final.
“We’ve got three cracks left to try to get that first win and the boys are doing all they can to try to get it.
“They’ve been doing extra recovery sessions and are so motivated to play the best footy they can over these last few weeks.”
Richmond travels to the QEO having won five of its 15 games this season and sitting 12th on the ladder.
The Tigers have only won twice in eight games away from their Punt Road home ground this season.
“Regardless of how sides like Richmond are going, there’s always plenty of motivation among the players to push for that AFL call-up,” Jones said.
“We need to make sure we bring our tackle pressure, be composed with our disposal and sustain our effort for four quarters, both with and without the ball.”
Sandhurst’s Seb Greene has earned another call-up as the Gold’s 23rd player after Jacob Chisari pulled out with a back injury.
Saturday night’s Bendigo-Richmond game at the QEO starts at 6.30pm.