As LONGFORD celebrate the 30-year reunion of their last premiership triumph, they face one of the main challengers standing in the path of their current goal, Hillwood.
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Also celebrating Sam Graham's 250th game, Beau Thorp's men have plenty to play for against a side he labelled "arguably the best in the competition."
"The game will be won in the midfield. They have several key forwards but we have backs so it will certainly be a battle in the middle," Thorp said.
Coming off a bye, Hillwood regain Daniel Withers and Jake King at the expense of Kieran Fullard (toe) and Zac Oldenhof (quad) but coach Nathan Lowe is relishing the challenge.
"They've only been beaten twice this year and they love their home ground," he said. "It's going to come down to the work rate - who wants to work harder - we both have good game plans so it's just who implements it."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
With both GEORGE TOWN and South Launceston sitting even on 24 points with finals football on the line, Saints coach Allan O'Sign believes it's a simple prospect for his side.
"For us, it's easy - we need to win our last two," he said.
"We believe we can do it and we are excited that if we play our best football we can be rewarded.
"We haven't played at home for about a month and with a home record of five wins out of seven and only losing to Bridgenorth and Longford, we go in fairly confident."
Ruing the missed opportunities from his side's "inconsistent" performances, South coach Aaron Viney is wary of their opponents heading into an elimination-final styled match-up.
"The winner will basically continue on and play finals. They are a better side at Blue Gum Park so we will have a look at who we need to shut down and go from there," he said.
Zach Sutherland returns from a broken arm suffered in round four.
Two sides on contrasting ends of the 2019 ladder meet as DELORAINE host Bridgenorth.
After being brought back to earth by a resurgent Rocherlea side last week, Kangaroos coach Brad Powe is looking for a lift in his players with a loss potentially knocking them from eighth.
"The group were extremely disappointed in their efforts and are looking to improve the effort against a genuine contender," he said.
Rory Gurr, Simon Eastley and Matt Mitchell are all chances to return as James Carpenter could debut.
The Brady Demeijer-led Parrots sit in second place and it could be theirs to lose if a shock result comes their way on Saturday.
Bridgenorth picked up a 15.14 (104) 7.7 (49) win over their opponents in round eight and come into the clash off the back of a 59-point win against George Town, blowing the Saints away with a six-goal to none last term.
The Parrots amassed 12 goal-kickers in last week's clash, something the Kangaroos will need to monitor.
SCOTTSDALE host Bracknell as both sides look to avoid the dreaded wooden spoon following the Magpies' shock win last week.
Happy with the win, coach Geoff Mohr said it almost proved frustrating to see his side knock off a high-fancied rival but is pleased to play that role this year.
"The bottom-two sides here are trying to avoid the wooden spoon and our job from here is really to stop other sides from making finals," he said.
"We both haven't had the best year after making finals the previous three and we do like to play them - they play a physical brand of football."
Looking to keep the same side heading into their season-defining contest, Bracknell coach Andrew Philpott stressed the importance.
Failing to beat the Magpies for several seasons, the Redlegs had a strong second-half performance against Longford.
"We've got to win this to get back level with them and get off the bottom of the ladder with two weeks left," he said.
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