Lockington-Bamawm United coach Kahl Oliver hasn't lost any sleep over the potential headache of stopping Sam Kerridge and Jed Lamb in Saturday night's HDFNL season-opener.
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The former AFL duo spearhead a new-look White Hills side, but that matters little to Oliver and his improving Cats.
"We won't put too much emphasis on those two (Kerridge and Lamb),'' Oliver said.
"If they can win the game solely on the back of those two then we're nowhere near it.
"We think we have a more even team to what they will. We have more depth across the field and players that have played together before.
"We have a lot of locals who have played a lot of footy together at this club.
"Those positives outweigh the fact they have two AFL players coming into the side.
"Sure, they are great players, and whoever plays on them is going to need to watch them closely, but there's more to winning a game of footy than just those two guys."
Related: Kerridge, Lamb ready to rumble
Oliver said a searching pre-season program has the Cats better prepared for 2019 in comparison to round one, 2018.
"Last year we surprised ourselves a bit in round one by the way we ran over the top of Mounts and scored a strong win,'' Oliver said.
"This year is the fittest I've seen the group in my time at the club and they're really eager to improve.
"We had a taste of finals and now we want to push ourselves into the top three bracket. If we're to do that then this is probably a game we should win."
While the Demons are strugging to fit their recruits under their player points tally of 43, the Cats will use just 29 of their allocated 46 points.
Last year's Rising Star winner Ricky Welch is the only absentee for the Cats on Saturday night.
"We're excited with where this group is heading,'' Oliver said.
"We've built the group up with players who have come through the ranks here.
"We're excited to get the season underway against a side that everyone is talking about being a top three challenger."
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