AFL Outer East Division 2 Preview: Round 4

It’s already round four in the AFL Outer East footy league. That’s right round four. Whilst everyone’s season has only just begun some sides are in danger of seeing 2019 slip away, whilst others can show everyone they’re the real deal.

It doesn’t get any easier for Yarra Glen defensive pairing Leigh Thomson and Nathan McCulloch.

The River Pigs key backs have just come off an impressive performance against the Seville Twin Towers – Patrick Ratray and Nathan O’Keefe – before facing the in form duo Chris Horman and Andrew Fairchild of Kinglake.

Fairchild has 11 goals in two games, whilst Chris Horman has 12. The Lakers power forwards can expect to have a third player drifting in front of them all afternoon on Saturday, as the River Pigs deployed ruckman Jim Baughan to sit in the hole for the majority of the second half last weekend.

The River Pigs also brought some fierce tackling and physicality to the contest on Sunday and will no doubt do the same on Saturday.

Kinglake should relish the contest though with a number of their new recruits experienced senior footballers who will have seen this all before. They will be wary though of the leg speed that Blake Binion and Austin Smith possess. If those two continue to appear in the best players for Yarra Glen, it’ll be a good year to be a River Pig.

Division Two Netball has thrown up an interesting round. Whilst the results may seem cut and dry to most people, it is a chance for sides to really test themselves against the competitions best.

Alexandra sits atop the ladder right now thanks to two byes and a 30 goal win over Gembrook-Cockatoo and despite their lofty position would still not have a great image of where they sit overall.

Whilst you would expect Yea to win this battle with relative ease, it’s a chance for Alexandra to use this weekend as an early measuring stick.

The same can be said for Yarra Glen. Coming off a big loss to Seville in which they conceded at least 13 goals per quarter Alicia Mortley’s crew will be looking to bounce back with a much better performance against Kinglake, who themselves are coming off the bye.

The questions for Yarra Glen is which area do they focus on rebuilding first. They conceded heavily, but were unable to hit the scoreboard themselves, other than in the last quarter where they finished with 10 goals.

This weekend will give us a good indication on which way the head coach decides to go as they too use this Saturday’s game as another measuring stick.

-Contributed.