TWO baby Bombers will make the trip South and play their maiden State League match for North Launceston against Tigers on Saturday.
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North coach Tom Couch said ruck-forward Cody Lowe and under-16 state representitive Ben Simpson have shown enough promise in the development league to earn a call up and that Rhyan Mansell had fully recovered from a back injury.
The trio replace Jock White, Callum Harrison and Tom Bennett for the Twin Ovals contest, which Couch is confident his charges are prepared for having defeated reigning champions Glenorchy by four points last week.
“We have been trying to build (in the past month). The Devonport and Burnie games were great with so many players out… we’ve tested out our depth this year, the boys have really stood up and the future is really bright,” Couch said.
“This will probably be the strongest side the Tigers have put on the park with representitive juniors coming back in. They play physical one-on-one football and really pushed us up here last time and we are expecting a tough clash, we’ve done our homework.”
Tigers led at half time at UTAS Stadium in round 8 but an inaccurate Bombers ran out 7.22 (64) to 7.6 (48) winners.
The seventh-placed Tigers are coming off a narrow defeat to Launceston, from which playing-assistant coach Marcus Davies said his teammates gained some confidence. He said four strong quarters were essential.
“It’s mental for a lot of our guys, we’re still a young group but you can’t afford to have any passengers so we’ve looked at that and we need to rely on individuals to bring their A-game,” he said.
“We tend to play some good footy at the Twin Ovals… we’ve got some really good forwards going well at the moment and I think if we feed them enough ball we can put a good score on the board.
Tigers have made two changes with Sam Rice and Daniel Archer set to play.
LAUNCESTON coach Sam Lonergan, forward Rulla Kelly-Mansell, midfielder Joe Boyce and Jake Smith have strengthened the Blues for an important clash with nearest rivals Hobart City at Windsor Park.
The foursome add experience to the Blues 22 with James Gillow, Simon Vandervelde, Matthew Hutchinson and Cameron Downie making way. Just four points separate the two teams and a Launceston win would secure them a finals berth and end City’s season. Hobart welcome back coach Kane Richter, Callan Dell and Ryan Cowie.
The two remaining matches of round 17 will be played out on Sunday.
CLARENCE host Burnie at Bellerive Oval from noon and LAUERDALE and Glenorchy will go head-to-head at Lauderdale Oval from 1pm.
Corey Martin
Having started at The Examiner as a cadet in 2009, I have held various positions telling the stories of Northern Tasmanians in sport and news. I was appointed deputy editor in 2019 and became editor in September 2021.
Having started at The Examiner as a cadet in 2009, I have held various positions telling the stories of Northern Tasmanians in sport and news. I was appointed deputy editor in 2019 and became editor in September 2021.
