Friday night’s a great night for footy!

Round 2 gets underway on Friday night when Coffs Harbour Breakers play host to Sawtell Toormina Saints under lights at Fitzroy Oval/The Old Camp.

The first local derby of the year is a clash between the two winners from the first round, and is a replay of the Grand Finals of the last two seasons so there’s plenty of pride at stake. Adding to the significance of this match is that an ANZAC ceremony will be staged prior to the first bounce at 7:00pm.

Breakers were quickly into their stride in round one and are looking like being the team to beat this season. The core of the team is made up of premiership players from last season, with captain Chris Frangos leading from the front and McKinlay Pearce in rare form that has seen him earn back to back call ups to the Sydney Swans NEAFL team.

Sawtell Toormina Saints had to get down and dirty to overcome Port Magpies in the first round. The Saints lacked cohesion for much of the first half, but that is to be expected considering the turnover of players from last year’s vanquished Grand Final team. Mitch Napier was a standout in round one and seems to have taken his game to another level this season, while playing coach Brandt Lee finally looks to be injury free after two challenging seasons.

A Friday night game will be a real spectacle and the ANZAC ceremony will add to the event.

A whole new rivalry gets underway between these two clubs on Saturday when the respective Women’s teams face off for the first ever time.

Sawtell were last start winners and look as though they’ll be hard to beat, with key players in Alana Hanson, Kacee Uikelotu, Tiarne Saunders, Vienna Schoeffel, and Keira Bassett all shining last week. The Women’s players are virtually all new to AFL and will improve markedly with each match, so the Saints are expected to go up another notch this week.

Breakers had the bye in round 1 so will be stepping out for the first time. This makes them something of a mystery package but they do have a number of experienced players in Remi Banuelos who has played in Sydney, Casey Miosge who played as a Junior, together with Bella Crawley, Cass Ronalds, and Jas Reid who were key players in last season’s Youth Girls premiership.

In the other Senior match, Port Macquarie Magpies are at home against Grafton Tigers, with both teams desperate to get their season up and running after round 1 losses.

Port will be keen to get back to the comforts of Wayne Richards Park where they are always hard to beat. Important contributions were made last week by key members of the leadership group including Craig Dicker, Jesse Schmidt, Dylan Beasley, and Blake Nelson, and the team will steadily improve as the combination of old and new players get used to each other.

Grafton will have to overcome not only their opponent but also the long road trip. The Tigers started brightly last week against Breakers and looked as though they were up for the contest, but were overrun in the second quarter, and coach Chris Curthoys will be looking for a sustained effort this week. Luke Butler proved to be an effective target up front, whilst older stagers Pat Curtain and Sam Hardes competed strongly and will set the tone that the team needs.

Round 2 fixtures:

Coffs Harbour Breakers v Sawtell Toormina Saints

Port Macquarie Magpies v Grafton Tigers

For full fixture details, click here.