No second chances for Junior teams in Prelim Finals

It’s make or break time in the Junior Competition. Eight teams will be involved in Preliminary Final action on Sunday knowing that four will have the elation of making it to a Grand Final, whilst four others will be left with the heartbreak of elimination.

All four match ups are incredibly even and results are likely to come down to whichever team can switch on quickest and maintain intensity for four quarters.

The day starts with the Under 11 fixture between Port Macquarie Flyers and Nambucca Valley Lions. These two teams finished the regular season with the same number of wins and were only separated by percentage. Surprisingly, they haven’t played each other this season so there are no clues as to how this could play out, other than the evenness of their respective seasons suggesting that this could go down to the wire. Don’t be surprised to see this match decided by less than a goal.

Following this is the clash between Northern Beaches Blues and Nambucca Valley Lions in the Under 13 competition. The Blues’ performance was slightly down last week so the focus at training will have been returning to top form to give themselves every opportunity in the Preliminary Final. The Lions were excellent in last week’s Semi and will be hard to stop if they bring that intensity to the table again this week. This is a rematch of last season’s Under 11 Grand Final with many of the same players and will be another epic battle between these two clubs.

The Youth Girls match sees two time reigning Premier Coffs Harbour Breakers up against the new kids on the block in Bellingen Bulldogs. This year’s line-up for the Breakers is drastically changed from the previous two successful seasons and the club has done a great job of rebuilding quickly to be in contention. The Bulldogs are in their first year in the competition and have a young and inexperienced but fearless line-up and are improving with each match played. Breakers have won all of the matches between the two teams this season by roughly five goals but there is no doubt that this match will be much closer. A Bulldogs win would be far from an upset.

The final match of the day sees the clash of Sawtell Toormina Saints and Macleay Valley Eagles in the Under 15 competition. This will be an intriguing match of contrasting styles – Sawtell have a well structured game plan that relies on a whole team effort, whereas the Eagles bring real individual flare to the contest. The last encounter between these two teams was just four weeks ago where the match was decided in Sawtell’s favour by just seven points. There’s no reason to expect that this match will be any different.

All matches are at Richardson Park, Sawtell with the action getting under way at 10:00am. Entry to the ground is free.

10:00am            Under 11 – Port Macquarie Flyers v Nambucca Valley Lions

11:25am             Under 13 – Northern Beaches Blues v Nambucca Valley Lions

12:50pm             Youth Girls – Coffs Harbour Breakers v Bellingen Bulldogs

2:15pm               Under 15 – Sawtell Toormina Saints v Macleay Valley Eagles