Payback time for Rovers

Rovers coach Sam Murray will be the first to say their last match with Myrtleford was far from his side’s best. In boggy conditions at the McNamara Reserve fortress back in June, the Hawks were comprehensively beaten by the Saints, 2.10 (22) to Myrtleford’s 9.12 (66). But the beauty of the home and away season is you’ve got a chance to get even, a golden opportunity which the Rovers will take with both hands when they welcome Myrtleford to WJ Findlay Oval on Saturday. “We didn’t show up last time, we weren’t strong enough around the contest, we weren’t strong enough defensively, and they got a hold of us,” Murray said. “We’re not going to look too much into that, this week is a different situation – what we’re going to look at is: how do we play our best football? “We’re going well, we’ve won the last five or so which is good, we’re in good form. “Looking at the key indicators for us and our team, our defensive aspects are in pretty good order. “We haven’t had a big score kicked on us, our ability to manage score from turnover and score from turnover ourselves in the back end has been good. “We feel the game’s in good order, we’ve obviously got a big challenge this week, so we’re looking at how we can continue to improve against a side that’s in very good form.” The Rovers depth has been on display over the last few weeks, able to post great scores up forward and remain frugal down back without some of their marquee names on the park. But it’s ramping up to finals, and those big names will be pulling on the guernsey in the next few weeks. “We’re really confident, along with our top-end players who are doing really well for us, we’ve got some really good depth players in there who are getting the job done,” Murray said. “Lochie O’Brien comes back after a week off, Kieren Parnell comes back for the remainder of the season, Jez Rigoni will be next week, with his last week of VFL this weekend. “We get Jace McQuade back who had VFL and had a rest, and we also get Noah Scholte back this week. “We bring in some real class and some serious role players into our side, and on top of that, we’ve got guys playing some really good footy. “No spot’s guaranteed, we’ll go through match selection and see where that sits.” The ladder leading Rovers can all but stitch up the minor premiership this weekend if they’re able to knock off the third-placed Saints. They sit a game and 14.37 percentage points up on silver medallists Lavington, within reach of a ticket to week two of the finals. Murray said they weren’t looking too far ahead to what-ifs and maybes. “Our league presents a really different opportunity to any other league in regards to the minor premiers getting the week off, but we’re definitely not looking at that at the moment,” he said. “We know Lavington are right there in terms of points and percentage, we understand we’ve got two big games with Myrtleford, who are obviously in really good form, and we’ve got Wodonga next week who are mathematically still playing for a spot in finals. “We’ve got no easy games coming into finals, but that’s how we’d like it, we’d rather it was like that – we want to play finals-like football over the next couple of weeks, prime ourselves for the big opportunity that’s coming.” Elsewhere, Wangaratta Magpies’ senior squad will look for a palate cleanser when they take on the winless Wodonga Raiders at Biralee Park. It’s been over a month since the ‘Pies last sung the song, and they’ll be looking to put on a solid performance with finals bearing down. The Raiders are unlikely to provide much resistance, having only won five senior games since the start of the 2022 season, but if the Magpies are to consider themselves legitimate flag contenders, they’ll need to play to their game plan no matter the opposition. The match will also have a say in finals qualifications, with Wangaratta a game clear in fifth, in vital need of premiership points if they want to see September. Football action across the Ovens and Murray commences on Saturday with the thirds from 10am, reserves at 12pm, before the seniors get underway at 2pm.

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