By Ken Moore
GARFIELD gets its chance to open its winning account this week when it meets Leongatha at Drouin on Sunday.
The Stars’ form has been solid but a lack of good attacking options have seen them just fall short in the past two rounds against Moe and Morwell.
After pulling off an upset victory over Morwell, the Parrots came back to the field in the next three rounds and never looked a winning threat.
The battle of midfields, which pits the Stars’ Shaun Pickering, Andy Soumilas and Ben Marsh against the reliable Tom Dowd, Jack Hughes and Caine Salmon, should largely determine the result.
Dom Davis is likely to return to add a bit of speed to the Parrots’ lineup but Ben Geitz, perhaps their best defender this season, is doubtful having suffered a knee injury.
Leongatha has badly missed the run and experience of Al Fixter, the 2005 Gazette player of the year, who is sidelined indefinitely with a knee injury.
Garfield’s renowned sprit and its ability to chase, tackle and harass is likely to upset the young Leongatha side and by late Sunday afternoon it should find itself off the bottom of table with a handsome victory.
Top side Sale will enter its home game against Drouin as overwhelming favourite.
Sale’s forward line of Chris Aurisch, Brenton Martin, Nick Fowler and Jacob Schuback is the best going around at the moment and it is hard to see the young Hawks winning.
Drouin’s season has been a mixed bag of good wins against Moe and Leongatha interspersed with bad losses against Morwell and Warragul.
The Hawks badly missed the grunt of Marc Olsen, Chris Wallace, Shaun Kleeven and Travis Delarue around the packs last week.
Sale will preserve its undefeated status and record another percentageboosting victory.
Warragul faces its biggest test of the season when it travels to Maffra.
The Gulls have exceeded expectations with three consecutive convincing victories.
Their midfielders Ryan Davey, Desi Barr, Brad Nott, Bobby Richardson, Leigh Sheehan and John Reid haven’t stopped running and its forwards Kael Bergels, Gavin Huxley and Paul McNulty haven’t stopped presenting.
A question mark still stands, though, on how the Gulls will respond when it is exposed to genuine pressure.
Maffra is not quite the side it was over the past four seasons but, in Ben Batalha, Adrian and Hayden Burgiel, Ben Coleman, Craig Robbins and Justin Bramich, it still has the class to go all the way this season.
Given that Maffra is fresh and that it holds a home advantage, I’ll tip it to tarnish Warragul’s undefeated record.
Traralgon has taken its supporters on a rollercoaster ride over the first month and this week it faces a danger game against Morwell.
The Maroons suffered a number of injuries last week and Shannon Edwards, Wade McNeill and gun midfielder and deputy vicecaptain Michael Geary are all doubtful.
With Greg Morley still sidelined and Shayne Simpson in dispute with the club, the Maroons are down on personnel and the Tigers look the far more settled and balanced and should get the points.Fixtures, with likely winners in capitals, are:
Traralgon v MORWELL
GARFIELD v Leongatha (Sunday at Drouin)
SALE v Drouin
MAFFRA v Warragul
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