Blues chasing elusive first win

Northern Beaches is at home to Sawtell/Toormina on Saturday.

THE Northern Beaches have shown glimpses of some tremendous football in their first two matches back in the seniors. Trouble is all they’ve got to show for it so far is one draw.

The Blues drew with reigning premier Grafton in the opening round before trailing the Coffs Breakers by only two points at half time last week before falling away.

On Saturday Northern Beaches play at home against Sawtell/Toormina and coach Rory Evans said the team can’t escape the fact it still hasn’t hasn’t sung the club song this season. It will be the primary aim at Centennial Oval.

“We just need to get back and talk about what we need to do,” Evans said.

“Importantly we can’t move away from the fact that we’re still looking for our first win of the season so that’s got to be the focus and the focus of how do we get it.”

The match against the Saints will be the continuation of a tough start to the season fixture-wise for Northern Beaches but Evans was philosophical about the situation.

“Subsequently that means that at some point we might get it a little bit easier but we won’t know that until everyone rolls out,” he said.

“The way it stands right now they’re probably three of the stronger teams.”

Even though Northern Beaches have just two premiership points from two matches, there’s little chance of Sawtell/Toormina’s playing coach Brandt Lee letting his team taking the opposition easily.

“Throughout the pre-season we’ve heard of the recruits that they’ve got so we know they’re a good outfit and they’re going to be a good side throughout the season,”

“So we’re pretty keen to go up against them and see how our boys match up.”

The Saints young brigade have again been a ray of enthusiasm for last year’s grand finalist. Lee said their attitude is a credit to the way they’ve been taught in under-age football.

“They’ve just improved so much being with Matt Anderson in the under-17s. He’s done a great job with them,” he said.

“Now they’ve built into proper senior players. They’ve improved out of sight and each game you give them they just keep improving.

“It’s really good and looking at the big picture it’s really promising for the Sawtell Football Club for years to come.”

REIGNING premier Grafton is at home to the top of the ladder Lismore Swans.

A big match for both sides, Grafton coach Adi Campbell admits facing the competition’s new teams leaves the Tigers with little information at this stage on how best to tackle the new opposition.

“We don’t really know much about them so we’ll see how it goes on Saturday,” Campbell said.

“I’ve been talking to Timmy Whalan who played in our premiership teams in 11 and 12 and he plays with them now.

“He reckons Lismore will be pretty handy.”

Lismore Swans coach Ashley Pritchard said Grafton is a team that obviously needs to be respected.

“It’s going to be another challenge for us, they’re the reigning premiers,” Pritchard said.

“It will be another weekend of heading into the unknown but one thing we do know is that they’re good.

“We’ll go down as strong as we can and see what happens.”

IN the NBL, when a team is fixtured to travel to Adelaide and Perth to play back-to-back matches, it’s a trip known as the Doomsday Double. Port Macquarie faces what is now the AFL North Coast’s version of the dreaded double.

Having travelled to Lismore last week, this Saturday the Magpies are on the road again to face a similar length trip to face the Casino Lions.

When the 2021 fixture was originally released, the Magpies’ travels weren’t on there. Last week’s match against the Lismore Swans was originally scheduled to be played at Wayne Richards Park.

But the match had to be moved as last weekend coincided with the massive Ironman event conducted each year in Port Macquarie.

As luck would have it, the Ironman was postponed until Father’s Day due to the impact of the recent flooding in the region.

Be that as it may, the Magpies are about to be like Willie Nelson and “On The Road Again”.

Port Macquarie coach Matt Clarke said the club has been lucky due to one member of its senior team.

“We ended up hiring a bus as one of the boys has a licence to drive one,” Clarke said.

“It was $40 each for bus hire and petrol and the club helped put us up for the night. After last week’s match we spent time with Lismore and we kind of just made it a bit of a bonding session.”

The bus will be back in action this week for the almost five hour trip to Queen Elizabeth Park. That’s no problem for Clarke, particularly in the early stages of the season.

“Some would say it’s a tough draw but we see it as a bit of a blessing,” the coach said.

“Early in the season is a good time to get together and get to know each other because everybody is on board as compared to the end of the year when the injury list mounts up.

“We’re enjoying it and making the most of it.”

NAMBUCCA Valley’s playing stocks have met a perfect storm and unfortunately the Lions won’t be able to field a team to meet the Coffs Breakers.

A long injury list combined with a buck’s weekend that will have see half a dozen Lions missing has caused a massive reduction in playing stocks for this week.

The forfeit by Nambucca Valley this week is  not ideal for either party, even though the Breakers get the four premiership points.

Lions coach Leif Stuart admits his team’s slow start to the season which saw them lose the opening two matches of the season is disappointing but said a reversal in fortune is not too far away.

“We’ll get through the next couple of weeks and we’ll be right,” Stuart said.

“We’ll hit our straps probably mid-season or somewhere around there when we get a few boys back.”

While hitting the straps late will will cause fatal damage to any hopes the Lions have of making finals, Stuart said that isn’t a great concern this year.

“It’s just a building year really, we’re not too worried about finals,” he said.

“It’s our first year in senior grade. We’re just really trying to build the club up so we’re not worried about finals at this point.”

ROUND 3 – Saturday, May 8
GRAFTON vs LISMORE SWANS at Ellem Oval, Grafton
(Under-17s – 10am (Graf vs Breakers); Women – 1.20pm; Seniors – 2.50pm)

NORTHERN BEACHES vs SAWTELL/TOORMINA at Centennial Oval, Woolgoolga
(Women – 11.50am; Reserves – 1.20pm; Seniors – 2.50pm)

CASINO LIONS vs PORT MACQUARIE at Queen Elizabeth Park, Casino
(Seniors – 2.50pm)

COFFS BREAKERS vs NAMBUCCA VALLEY at Fitzroy Oval, Coffs Harbour
(Seniors – 2.50pm)