After eight rounds the sides sit ninth and tenth respectively on the Division 1 ladder and this weeknd’s encounter could play a large role in deciding this year’s relegation battle.
Both teams head into the clash with a 1-7 record after a difficult opening two months of the 2012 season.
Lower Plenty, the newcomer to the top flight after a dominant season in Division 2 last year, has been competitive in all but one of its games in 2012, though has only a solitary win over Montmorency to show for its efforts.
The one win was a famous one, with the Bears jumping their arch rival early on to race to a 21-point lead at quarter time. Despite kicking only four goals after the first break, they held on for an 11-point win, the result the biggest surprise in Division 1 so far this season.
Billy Barden is having a superb season and has elevated his reputation even further after finishing third in the Division 2 best and fairest last year.
The premiership captain has spent the majority of the season in the middle of the ground but has still booted 21 goals, the most of any Lower Plenty player and placing him equal seventh on the competition goal kicking table.
Clint Monger is another leading from the front, the 29-year-old seemingly getting better with age. The three-time club champion has polled 10 votes in the Coaches Player of the Year award, equal with Barden as the most of any Bear.
Great responsibility will now be placed on the young shoulders of Reece Geary, with the young tall now expected to play as the club’s first ruckman following Patrick Flynn’s season-ending injury against West Preston-Lakeside a fortnight ago.
Flynn, the league’s most promising young ruckman, suffered a fractured eye socket against the Roosters and is expected to be out of action for 10 weeks, effectively ruling him out of the remainder of the 2012 season.
Whittlesea looked to be steadily improving when it claimed a comfortable 29-point win over West Preston-Lakeside in Round 5 but has since struggled badly over the past month.
Since beating the Roosters, the Eagles have lost their past three matches by an average margin of 79 points, including a 148-point loss to Heidelberg in Round 7.
With injuries affecting a host of its senior list, the club is relying heavily on its large crop of promising youngsters each week.
After a dominant opening five weeks, Nick Snowdon has missed the Eagles’ past two matches while talented defender Chris Horman missed the Heidelberg loss a week after starring against Macleod.
Further compounding the club’s misfortunes, skipper Garrett Heenan, Matthew Quinton and Jeremy Page were all injured against Heidelberg which limited the Eagles to just one interchange rotation.
But for all the doom and gloom, there have been a number of positives for Whittlesea throughout the first half of the year.
The win over West Preston-Lakeside and a two-point loss to Montmorency proved the club can match it with anyone when it plays its best football, while the form of Snowdon, Horman and Andrew Fairchild has gives the club plenty to build a good team around.
If it can get its best team on the park there is no reason why Whittlesea can’t expect to win at least five of its final ten games and comfortably avoid relegation from the top flight.
The sides today resume a competitive rivalry which stems back to their time in Division 2.
They last met in the 2010 Division 2 Grand Final, where the Eagles were victorious by 14 points to earn promotion to Division 1 for the first time in their history.
Past four meetings:
Whittlesea 3, Lower Plenty 1
Grand Final, 2010: Whittlesea 9.17 (71) def Lower Plenty 9.3 (57)
2nd Semi Final, 2010: Whittlesea 11.7 (73) def Lower Plenty 7.15 (57)
Rd 17, 2010: Lower Plenty 13.16 (94) def Whittlesea 11.14 (80)
Rd 14, 2010: Whittlesea 10.14 (74) def Lower Plenty 7.7 (49)
