Battle of the Big Men
Darling Downs A Grade 2nd Semi Final – South Toowoomba Bombers v Coolaroo Roos
Ever since Round 4 these two teams have been pretty much locked inside the top 4, but now is the time to make it count.
The Bombers were undefeated until halfway through July, very similarly to their 2011 form, before a draw to the Tigers was followed up by a 1 point loss to the Roos. The Bombers came home hard in this match kicking 7 goals to 1 in the final quarter, but fell just short.
Generally the smaller confines of Harristown Park are of benefit to Souths, however Coolaroo’s big preseason may be starting to take its toll on their players. Moving the game to Rockville Oval may expose this fatigue, however with the week off hopefully this should not become an issue.
Like many Darling Downs games of footy, the star quality is loaded into the midfield. Corin Snakey will provide Lee Gribble and Michael Langton with plenty of footy for the Roos, however his direct opponent Chris Jackson is a man mountain and normally provides Jeff Neumann and Bradon Behan with first use.
In the Coolaroo forward line big Miels Grice will have the ball fed straight down his throat all day and will be keen to kick a bag. With either the newly crowned Holman Medallist, Trent Saxelby or the stingy (both on-field and off) Nick Jones as his opponent, it will certainly not be easy going for Milo.
At the other end of the ground, watch for a pitch invasion as Dan McPhee looks to bring up the ton in this match, being stuck on 98 regular season goals. Rookie of the Year Michael Casey will be the likely matchup for McPhee as he nears the 50 while Carl Horsfall may remain closer to home.
Until last week Coolaroo had won 12 consecutive matches and will not want to make it two in a row at the business end of the season. This match will be won by whichever team can spoil the key forward, rebound the ball out of defence and feed it to their own key forward the best.
For the winner, the week off awaits, for the loser a matchup with a victorious Cougars or Tigers outfit is not an enviable position to be in.
Past Results:
Round 2: South Toowoomba 11.7 (73) d Coolaroo 8.11 (59)
Round 15: Coolaroo 15.15 (105) d South Toowoomba 16.8 (104)
