Round 9 of Northpark NFLW Division 1 will see top of the table teams Bendigo and VU Western Spurs go head-to-head at Queen Elizabeth Oval.
The Thunder enter the match as the only undefeated side in the competition, siting on 32 points after an 8-0 start to the season.
The Spurs sit just behind on 28 points after their only loss of the season came at the hands of fourth-placed Melbourne University in Round 6.
Bendigo coach Cherie O’Neill believes that while the proposition of travelling to Queen Elizabeth Oval to take on her undefeated side could be daunting for opposing sides, anything can happen on any given day.
“In this competition it really is the unknown. If you look at the results there has been a couple of upset games so I think it just depends how it turns out on the day,” O’Neill told NFL.org.au.
O’Neill will do a bit of research into what makes the Spurs such a dangerous team, but it adamant that Bendigo’s success so far this season has come from implementing its own game plans and structures.
“The way we’ve been going we have just been focusing on our game style and how we want to play. I’ll do a bit of research but we will be focussing on us mostly,” she said.
VU Western Spurs coach Caroline Kilmartin said the top of the table clash presented her team with a new challenge.
Kilmartin expects her team to go into the game with a similar approach to Bendigo, focussing only on what they can control.
“You do look at things a little bit differently (in a top of the table game) but we are just going to concentrate on doing the things we’ve done all season,” Kilmartin said.
“If the girls can pull off the structures that we have been working on all season then I think we’re a definite chance this week.”
Both teams have made a seamless entry into the Northpark NFLW competition and Spurs coach Kilmartin has been extremely impressed with her players’ ability to adapt to all the new challenges presented to them.
“Most of them are new to the sport or just stepping up from lower grades, the way that they’ve adapted to the structures and the way that they’ve gelled as a team in general is really pleasing,” Kilmartin said.
Bendigo forward Andrea Walsh looms as one of the players to watch in Sunday’s match.
Walsh kicked 34 goals this season, including a season-best bag of 7 in Round 1 against Darebin. She leads all comers in the goal-kicking tally, with five majors against Whitehorse last weekend pushing her 21 goals ahead of her next challenger.
Kilmartin said she wouldn’t send anyone in particular to the Thunder spearhead.
“I have full confidence in our backline and I wouldn’t expect any one player this year to get any special treatment, any number of our backline could go to someone like that.”
Bendigo has a whopping percentage of 635.45 per cent and will look to go two games clear of the Spurs with a win this weekend.
Should the Spurs upset a rampant Bendigo, they will join the Thunder atop the NFLW Division 1 ladder and further strengthen their claim for a double-chance in the finals.
Photo by Noni Hyett (Bendigo Advertiser)
