LONGFORD are out to ensure they do not fall short against Diggers for the second time this season.
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The ladder-leaders’ only loss came in round 6 when they failed to chase down 61 at Hagley with two of their batsmen being timed out.
Country Tigers captain-coach Josh Adams, who missed that match, said their opposition would not be taken lightly on Saturday.
Longford are coming off a big nine-wicket win over Hadspen, while the Diggers have dropped into last spot.
Diggers captain-coach Paul Fruin said Ji Cooley would miss. “We’re facing relegation so in these last five weeks we have got to build towards what we want to achieve as a club,” Fruin said.
“It doesn’t get any easier this week but we seem to play our best against the best sides.”
ACL were bowled out for 77 against Hadspen last time around and coach John Kedey has called on more application from his batsmen – starting at University Oval on Saturday.
Beauty Point also rolled the Bluebacks for 105 last weekend with Kedey forced to rejig both their batting and bowling line-ups for the Chieftains battle. “We’re just trying to see what our best team and best positions are moving forward,” he said.
“We have to try and overcome their best players, which seems to be a problem for us week-in-week-out.”
Hadspen captain Liam Reynolds said his charges were handed a reality check from Longford but is confident they can improve to be a serious contender.
CRESSY have lost five of their past six matches and a prized top-four position, leaving captain Sam Graham searching for answers leading into their clash with Trevallyn at home.
Graham said David Radeski, Adam Wesley and Andrew Nichols would be replaced by Jock Gibson and Brodie Ling with the third to be determined.
“We’ve had a chat about trying to bat second and chase because we’ve had trouble to set a total, which has hurt our chances of winning – you can’t often defend 87,” Graham said. Trevallyn secured their second win last week but captain-coach Glen Gleeson said key players Alby Letter, Stuart Brown and Damien Bailey were among six unavailable.
TIGERS host a resurgent Beauty Point looking to consolidate their finals chances at Faulkner Park.
Tamar Tigers captain Beau Hills will be back in action with the visitors to be at full strength. “It has been good to beat those above and below us in the past couple of weeks,” Hills said.
Tigers secured a strong victory over Cressy to sit eight points outside the relegation zone
LADDER
Pos team W-L-D Pts
- 1 – Longford 11-1-0 (38)
- 2 – Hadspen 8-3-1 (31)
- 3 – ACL 7-5-0 (26)
- 4 – Beauty Point 5-5-2 (22)
- 5 – Cressy 5-6-1 (19)
- 6 – Tigers 5-6-1 (17)
- 7 – Trevallyn 2-9-1 (9)
- 8 – Diggers 1-9-2 (6)