BBD - No fears of complacency for Eaglehawk against Bendigo

SKIPPER Dean Carter says Eaglehawk won't be lulled into a sense of complacency given its previous two thrashings of Bendigo when the two sides meet in Saturday's BBD preliminary final.

The Hawks have demolished Bendigo by margins of 42 and 37 shots in their two home and away meetings.

However, with no second chance left following last week's six-shot qualifying final loss to Bendigo East, the Hawks are on guard against a Bendigo side that has nothing to lose given its heavy underdog status.

"Bendigo is a good side that has come from towards the bottom of the ladder last season. A lot of people may think we could go in complacent, but finals are a whole new game and we certainly won't be taking them lightly," Carter said on Friday.

"It's all knockout from here… we want to be there next week to have a shot at back-to-back and to do that we have to get through Saturday."

Carter's rink has been one of the top-performed in the BBD this season with a 9-4-1 record from its 14 games, but is coming off a 24-13 loss last week to the competition's No.1 skipper - Bendigo East's Lee Schraner.

All four Hawks' rinks have positive shot differences - Darren Burgess +100; Dean Carter +63; Brayden Byrne +28; and Simon Carter +6.

Conversely, the only rink with a positive shot difference and more wins than losses for Bendigo is that of Mitch Hocking (7-5-2, +13).

Bendigo regained some much-needed confidence last week with a 16-shot elimination final win over South Bendigo, which came on the back of the side losing its previous four games by a combined 135 shots.

Eaglehawk - which has made it to the final three for the 15^th time in the past 16 seasons - and Bendigo will meet on Kangaroo Flat's A Green from 1.30pm Saturday.

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• Season meetings:

Round 4 - Eaglehawk 112 d Bendigo 70. B. Byrne 26 d M. Hocking 18, D. Burgess 28 d D. Broderick 21, D. Carter 25 d A. Brown 21, S. Carter 33 d T. Babitsch 10.

Round 11 - Eaglehawk 111 d Bendigo 74. B. Byrne 23 lt L. Brooks 25, D. Burgess 30 d A. Brown 19, S. Carter 34 d D. Broderick 12, D. Carter 24 d M. Hocking 18.

• Selection - Eaglehawk by 25 shots.

Eaglehawk v Bendigo

at Kangaroo Flat

Last week - Eaglehawk 87 lt Bendigo East 93; Bendigo 92 d South Bendigo 76.

Marong v South Bendigo

at Eaglehawk

Last week - Marong 74 lt Eaglehawk 97; South Bendigo 87 d Strathfieldsaye 82.

Harcourt v Golden

Square

at Bendigo East

Last week - Harcourt 85 lt Bendigo East 95; Golden Square 100 d Heathcote 86.

Woodbury v Eaglehawk

at Bendigo East

Last week - Woodbury 64 lt Strathfieldsaye 97; Eaglehawk 103 d South Bendigo 94.

Dingee v White Hills

at Golden Square

Last week - Dingee 68 lt Marong 97; White Hills 102 d Harcourt 84.

Kangaroo Flat v

Eaglehawk

at Woodbury

Last week - Kangaroo Flat 84 lt Campbells Creek 105; Eaglehawk 124 d Bendigo 79.

White Hills v Marong

at Golden Square

Last week - White Hills 69 lt Bendigo VI 84; Marong 85 d Eaglehawk 60.

Campbells Creek v

Marong

at Woodbury

Last week - Campbells Creek 47 lt Strathfieldsaye 53; Marong 66 d Castlemaine 27.

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