Congupna and Moama will battle it out at Congupna Recreation Reserve on Saturday, in a rematch of last year’s elimination final and – potentially – a preview of this year’s grand final.
The Road and Magpies were two of the off-season darlings of Murray league, bringing in a number of key additions to bolster their already strong squads. And now we will get to see exactly how they stack up against one another.
“We are really looking forward to this one, obviously they knocked us off in the elimination final last year,” Congupna co-coach Ben Bingham said.
“We are expecting them to be pretty well drilled. They are going to be fairly strong in the midfield as well, they have a couple of good players in the likes of Nick Pavlou and Tom Sheldon that we need to look out for also.
“We are really looking forward to seeing where we are with things against a highly-touted team in the comp.”
While Bingham said the group hadn’t been building the game up in the lead in, he said it would still have a some extra significance.
“You would be lying to say there isn’t a bit riding on it.,” Bingham said.
“We are second and fourth – when you play someone else high up on the ladder, they always turn into eight-point games in the end.
“They are definitely games you would rather win than lose, so we will be putting a fair bit of emphasis on it this week leading into a bye in a couple of weeks’ time.”
Congupna (5-1) and Moama (4-1) have shared almost identical seasons to date. They both sit inside the top four and have lost one game.
Those defeats also happened to come against the same opponent – reigning premier Mulwala.
The Lions edged past the Magpies by two points in round one, before handing The Road a five-goal loss in round two.
Bingham said there were lessons from that clash against Mulwala that he hoped Congupna would be able to implement come Saturday afternoon.
“We had Mulwala a couple of weeks ago and it is good to find out where we are at with things a couple of weeks after that game having changed a few things up ourselves,” he said.
“Working harder without the footy, that is just one thing that we have been working on and just finishing our game a fair bit better – staying concentrated for longer periods of time.
“We want to really finish off games a lot stronger, which is going to help in the long run.”
Asked where the game would be won or lost, Bingham said he was expecting the battle in the middle to be key.
“They are very strong in the midfield, they have recruited well in that area. I think that is where our strength is, and by all reports, that is where they really drive a lot of their good football from,” he said.
“They are a really hard-running team, so it will be about stopping their drive out of the midfield.
“They set up well across half-back as well, so it is just us not playing into their hands.”
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