A 28-point win over Hillwood represents the unbeaten Bulldogs’ only comfortable win in the past four rounds – a record which is encouraging Lyndon Stubbs as he looks to steer his side out of seventh spot. 

“I’ve been drumming into my guys that in (South’s) past four games their average margin has only been 10 points, so they’re well and truly beatable and that’s how we've been approaching this game,” Stubbs said.

“We’ve had two weeks to prepare so we’ve got everything in place, we’re looking forward to the challenge and if we want to make finals we need to start winning games like this.

“If this weather sticks around it might be a tight in-close battle, and I think that’s going to suit us just fine.” 

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BRIDGENORTH will jump into second spot providing it can pull the season double over an on-fire Longford.

Brady Demeijer’s side will be buoyed by the return of Nick McElwee and Matthew Zanetto, but will need to be at their best to defeat a Country Tigers side which has lost only once in five rounds.

“Longford are definitely on the up - to be able to draw against South and beat some other teams they’re looking the real deal this year, they’ll be looking to make finals and make a dent,” Demeijer said.

“Their top-tier players are very good, especially adding a few new ones recently, so we’ll definitely need to get our match-ups right.

“It’s an eight-point game so we’ve got to come to play.”

Longford coach Beau Thorp said his side would play close attention to experienced Parrots duo Joel Clements and McElwee, but also recognised his side had arsenal of its own.

“We rely on every player to do their bit which has been a strength of ours,” Thorp said.

“Our goals come from our midfielders and our forwards so we definitely share the load.

“We’ve been coaching this year that if a team has shut one player down, it’s a turn for another player to step up and fill that void.”

HILLWOOD will be without star midfielders Dan Withers and Adam Humzy for its clash with Deloraine.

Matthew Bennett and Mason De Ruyter-Keane are also unavailable for what coach Nathan Lowe described as a “massive” game. 

“If we want a double chance we’ve got to win every game on the way through,” Lowe said.

“We’ve got a couple of under-18 players that are quite capable of filling the roles, we gave (Declan Bowditch) a game against Rocherlea and he’s held his position.

“He’s only 16 and played good footy - he’s a pretty big, solid kid so he can hold his own really well.”

Bradley Powe’s Kangaroos outfit has promising youth of its own, and will be looking to improve from its last showing against Longford. 

“It was a big day for the club and it was always going to go one of two ways - unfortunately the emotion probably got a bit much for the boys and they got overpowered,” Powe said.

“The boys were pretty devastated with the result and how they performed, but I think it was just overawe and emotion on the day and what it meant for us.”

Experienced Roos pair Mathew O’Donoghue and Simon Eastley will return.

SCOTTSDALE has a point to prove after being upset by George Town in round five.

Geoff Mohr’s men are shooting for five straight before the bye next round. 

“We owe them one from earlier in the year and we need to make sure we continue winning,” Mohr said.

“I said to the boys after the Bridgenorth game… to be in the situation we have been in, I’d prefer us to be there rather than being undefeated and then not know how to fight our way back.

“To be able to go through that period and fight our way back into finals contention is pretty good.”

Zac Cooke will return for the Saints, who haven’t played a game since June.

“We’re just looking at getting a big scalp and we’ll go in confident against Scottsdale this week having already beaten them,” coach Allan O’Sign said.

“We match up pretty well and the guys are really keen to make it two out of two.”