An injury-plagued Burrangong Bears team hope to turn the tables this weekend as they take on the Grenfell Goanas in Round 10 of the Woodbridge Cup.
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Last time the two teams met in Round 1 the Goannas slammed Young with a 68-18 victory, but club person Peter Campbell believes the Bears can rise from the bottom of the ladder.
Campbell said at full strength the Bears are strong contenders in the competition, but battling a number of injuries ahead of the weekend could prove the difference on Sunday.
“Certainly our attack has improved and at full strength we should go alright, it just depends on the injury report from last weekend because we had about three or four blokes busted,” he said.
“But if they play this weekend we should go okay.”
Campbell said Grenfell are a strong side who boast a number of players who have the ability to blow the game out of control if not contained.
“They’ve got a couple of big fellas up the middle and both their centres and fullback are pretty good,” he said.
“We’ll be focusing on keeping them contained and probably not give them as much room as we did last time we played them.”
He said the boys have what it takes to be competitive against the Goannas and look to be in a good position at this stage of the week.
Currently at the bottom of the ladder with one point, the only way is up for the Bears.
“We’d move off the bottom of the ladder to start with, we’re equal bottom with Binalong, and it might give us a bit more confidence for the rest of the season too,” Campbell said.
Like their fellow grade the women’s League Tag team will come up against a handy Grenfell team who are currently undefeated this season.
Young were defeated by 40 points the last time they versed Grenfell – a match Campbell said was played when the Bears fielded four players on their debut.
“I did a comparison the other day and last year we conceded 720 points in 14 games,” he said.
“This year so far in nine games we’ve conceded 204.
“It’s a bit over 500 points difference, so we were averaging 52 points per game against us and now we’re down to 22. We’re very happy, but we’ve spent a lot of time on it too.”
Campbell said the difference can be attributed to Young’s positional play, their ball control and fitness level. The Bears will need to bring all this and more to the field in order to overcome the competition leaders on Sunday.
