Sam smith takes a mark

Thunder to use Giants to climb back – Match Preview : Rd 14

28.06.17 11:42

NT Thunder will be hoping to prove last week’s 53-point loss to Southport was just an aberration when they play the bottom-placed GWS Giants in Round 14 of the NEAFL on Saturday.

This week, for the second in succession, Thunder faces a side that has been battered by the Brisbane Lions.

The Lions beat Southport by 150 points in Round 12 and the Giants by 96 points in Round 13.

Thunder was a hot favourite to beat the struggling Sharks last weekend, but was surprised by a team determined to erase its own memory of a big loss the week before.

Despite the defeat to Southport, Thunder continues to hold fourth spot on the NEAFL ladder, ahead of Aspley on percentage, but is three wins behind both Brisbane (second) and Sydney University (third), while the Sydney Swans are a further win ahead on top.

The Giants, meanwhile, are in last place with just the one win, in the opening round, meaning they’re on a 10-game losing streak.

In fact the Giants’ record since their 55-point Round 9 loss to Thunder in Darwin is pretty bleak – a 46-point loss to Redland, a 171-point loss to Sydney and the loss to Brisbane, a game in which no Giants players attracted enough attention to be given MVP votes.

At least for Thunder, on-ballers Cameron Ilett (three) and Matt Rosier (one) attracted voting.

Ilett is already a five-time club champion and could be heading for a sixth as his fine form also has him in third place on the MVP table, just one vote behind joint leaders Jordan Keras, from Southport, and Jordan Dawson from Sydney.

Thunder’s Darren Ewing, the NEAFL’s leading goal-kicker, added three goals to take his tally to 40 for the season.

There’s hope to find for Thunder in other areas as well with Round 12 Rising Star nominee Nick Yarran a chance to return for the Giants match.

The 19-year-old missed last week’s game, along with vice-captain and key defender Justin Beugelaar, defender Jonathan Peris and Braedon McLean. An exciting first-year forward Adam Sambono has also missed the past two matches.

Thunder coach Andrew Hodges wasn’t giving any hints during the week as to who might return and who might be dropped after the loss last weekend.

“We’re going to pick our best side available to take on the Giants this week,” he said.

Hodges added though, that he expects each of his players who do take to the field to take a ruthless approach to the match.

“Any game we play we want to have that ruthless edge,” he said. “We didn’t bring that last week so we want to improve on that this week and make sure that we bring that to an away trip to Spotless Stadium.

“Our guys are a pretty proud group and they know that the weekend’s performance was well below our best and we want to bounce back this weekend and show that our best footy can compete with anyone so it’s important we do that this week.”

Hodges added that no stone has been left unturned in order to turn around last week’s result.

“After any loss, the coaching staff, we like to do an in-depth review and pinpoint the areas of the game where we fell down and we’ve done that this week to make sure that we give the players the message that going forward we need to improve in these areas and the players are fully aware of the areas where we broke down and we just need to make sure we improve on those things this week,” he said.

Hodges and his coaching staff will be wary of the AFL club too. Although it sits atop of the ladder, the Giants’ AFL team has had an injury-plagued season, which has drained its NEAFL team of talent.

Despite this, the Giants still had 10 AFL-listed players line up against the Lions last weekend, including ruckmen Dawson Simpson and Rory Lobb and former Fremantle on-baller Tendai Mzungu, and where there’s listed players, there’s talent.

Saturday 1 July

NEAFL Round 14: GWS Giants vs NT Thunder – Saturday 3.15pm, Spotless Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park