By Brad Kingsbury
THE fear of most Doveton followers that one of its twintower forwards would go down has become a reality with centre halfforward Ryan Brown injuring his groin on Saturday.
How the Doves react to the big bloke’s absence and restructure their forward half will not only tell the story of this week’s game against Pakenham, but indicate to all rivals how far they’ve progressed as a legitimate premiership hope.
Injuries are a part of football and the ability to cover the loss of key players is often as important as any tactic on match day.
The Lions proved last week that they have the talent to do just that when Lincoln Withers, Joel Padley, Justin Sutherland and Glen Wouters watched their team mates crush fellow finals’ contender ROC from the boundary line.
Wouters and possibly Withers will return this week and the Doves can expect a big challenge from the confident Lions.
If the weather holds out, this promises to be a crackerjack affair with both sides in great form.
Doveton will be favourites despite Brown’s absence, but a Pakenham win would not be a major shock.
Hampton Park will play the first of four prefinals finals when it hosts Tooradin at the Booth Reserve this weekend.
The Redbacks produced their best form of the season last week and if they can maintain the intensity they showed against Berwick will not only win, but could upset any of the sides above it given suitable conditions.
The Seagulls will be keen to bounce back after last weekend’s loss, but the key to the game lies with Hampton Park. Any letdown after last week’s game will be taken advantage of, but at home the Redback army should be singing its song again.
ROC is at home to Cranbourne in what promises to be an interesting match.
The Hawks upset ROC by one point in their first meeting and that loss has grated on the Kangaroos since and is currently a major reason they are outside the top five.
Cranbourne played its heart out last week and went down by only two points and a repeat performance this Saturday will guarantee a great game and force ROC to work very hard.
The Kangaroos should have enough class to win.
Matches between Narre Warren and Berwick usually excite and prompt serious debate as to the outcome, but not this week.
The Wickers are mentally and physically shot and looked like they wanted to be anywhere except on the football field last week.
Narre Warren is cruising towards a serious tilt at September glory and Berwick will provide just another minor speedhump on that road this weekend.
Devon Meadows showed real character to win on Saturday and will be keen to ram home that advantage against CaseyCardinia strugglers Keysborough.
Craig Hunter’s team has been patchy this season, but when its good it’s very good and the Burra will not be able to contain the Panthers’ matchwinners.
Dingley will just want the season to end after next Saturday afternoon against Beaconsfield.
The Eagles are not yet near full strength, but discontent with the season’s performance at the Dingo den was openly displayed last weekend and the Eagles are the best in the business at exploiting opposition weakness.
Panthers drop milestone match
Dandenong’s four-game winning streak in Victorian Premier Cricket came to an end against Melbourne on Saturday as the Panthers failed to mark a major...
