Brendon Bolton proved a welcomed guest at the North Launceston player reunion.
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Until a question from the floor had begrudgingly asked why did the Carlton coach ever play for Clarence.
There were a few sneers in the room over the thought of Bolton donning a Roos guernsey, but thankfully a few more chuckles when forgiven over the opportunity that put him on the AFL path during his Hobart sojourn.
It gave a further insight into the detestiable rivalry that Bombers fans have for their most hated TSL opponents.
That perhaps rang in the ears at half-time last week when coach Taylor Whitford displayed concern to his men about how the game plan would hold up against Clarence on the Roos home turf.
The reigning premiers and warm favourites turned around an uneasy 18-point lead against battling North Hobart into a 130-point win.
Whitford, who with Tom Couch will return to the side, feels that fear has been allayed heading into match with their antagonists.
“I hope our mindset will be good this week,” he said.
“We’ve had a really good night [on Wednesday] on the training track – I’d say it’s probably the best night we’ve had for the entire year.
“You got to realise we have a very mature group that understands that North Hobart was a game last week we were expected to win easy.
“This week’s more of a challenge and Clarence is probably, if not the form side of the comp, one of the form sides, winning their last five.
“We’re going to have to be on both physically and mentally for the battle.”
North Launceston had just edged out Clarence in their opening 12-point victory.
Whitford said his side has learned a lot from the testing performance.
Rather than hold back and keep an ace up their sleeve come a most likely finals encounter, the Bombers are taking the second meeting as a further occasion to test themselves against the Roos.
“I am of the belief that most sides will generally at this stage of the year know what other sides will tend to want to do,” Whitford said.
“You can say you want to hold a few things back, but realistically you have to win games of footy to set yourselves up for the end of the year. Every game of footy we play, we go out to just win and go out to play really well.
“We’ll be throwing out what game plan we think we can beat Clarence with.”
Whitford is excited for a second run on Bellerive Oval.
In one of the quirks of the lopsided seven-team draw, the Bombers will not host Clarence until the second last game of the season.
“To get another opportunity to play on Bellerive is great because it’s a different ground to most,” he said.
“So you do have to tinker with your game style a little bit, but it’s a good chance for us to try different things on a ground that you do play finals on.”