BY KELLY MASTERS
The Hawks and Lions will play-off in the traditional ANZAC round encounter at Box Hil City Oval this Saturday.
The match will pay tribute to the sacrifice of the servicemen and women of Australia and New Zealand with a service on the ground before the first bounce.
Coming off a confidence-boosting 75-point win over Frankston, Coburg has kept the belief in the same men to take on the job against the Hawks.
After what was an excelling team performance against the Dolphins, there was no going past the milestone man Pete McEvoy with his six goals and 22 disposals. Named the Lion of the week, McEvoy will be looking to continue his excellent form and leadership to get the Lions their second win on the board.
Tasting their first win of the season; Brodie Foster, Kane Noonan, Sam Lowson, Billy Cannolo and Sam Binion will all be looking to continue Coburg’s gruelling pressure on their opponents. Brodie Foster was able to keep Frankston’s Nathan Freeman down to three possessions for the match. He will no doubt take on the role of shutting down Box Hill’s most prolific players at the contest.
This week Podhajski, Neaves, Noonan and Meagher will all potentially start the game on the interchange bench.
Named on the extended bench, Luke Di Lizio and Tyson Old will potentially make their Coburg debut. They will be joining Jack Murphy and Bradyn Gillard who were absent against the Dolphins but are a chance to be back in the red and blue for round four.
Reddick, Cavallaro, Sandric, Bollinghaus, Donaghey, McDonald, J.Baker, Smith and Carroll, all took part in ANZAC Day matches with their local teams today after not being required for VFL duties this week.
Meanwhile, on Saturday Federico, Watkins, O’Donoghue and Harman will all take part in the ANZAC round at their local clubs. Murphy, Gillard, Old and Di Lizio may also play local unless called up by the lions.
The Annual match between the two rivals will also see the best player of the day awarded the Gibbs-Lines Medal after the game.
The Gibbs-Lines Medal honours the two former stalwarts John Ronald (Ron) Gibbs of Box Hill Football Club as well as Eric Thomas Carter (Tiger) Lines. Eric Lines was part of our four in a row premiership era up until 1930 and captain-coached during 1931-2, 1934-5,1936,1937-39 and played in the 1939 premiership. He enlisted in the army in WW2 and on return coached the reserves once again in 1946.
Box Hill will be looking to get their third win of the season before their bye in round five after Port Melbourne proved too competent for them on Easter Sunday. The Hawks weren’t able to capitalise on their scoring opportunities, kicking 8.17 to Port Melbourne’s 12.17.
Despite the defeat, Damian Mascitti and Lachlan Walker had 20 disposals each, while Luke Meadows finished with 18. These players made sure Box Hill still had plenty of the ball, but Coburg’s high-pressure game and hard contests will make for a solid matchup this week.
We travel to Box Hill City Oval this Saturday to take on the Hawks at 1:00 pm. There will be an ANZAC memorial service commencing at approximately 12.50pm on the field.
All Coburg Football members are encouraged to come and cheer on the Lions as they compete for the cup. The match is set to broadcast on radio 3WBC 94.1FM.
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