Off the back of last week’s heartbreaking draw against Sandringham, Coburg will again play at Piranha Park when it hosts Frankston on Sunday.
The Lions trailed by over five goals at three quarter time last week, but played some great football in the last quarter to fall agonisingly short of their first win of 2018. Peter McEvoy (four goals) and Nick Mellington (25 disposals, 12 tackles and one goal) were both very influential and will be hoping to carry their form into this Sunday’s game.
Frankston sit six points ahead of Coburg on the ladder and will be itching to get a win away from home this weekend. The Dolphins have not tasted victory since their Round 6 clash against the Lions where they were able to take advantage of Coburg’s disappointing first half and run away comfortable winners. Key defender Harry Nolan and small forward/midfielder Josh Weightman were the standouts for Coburg that day.
Coburg will be eager to make amends from its poor performance that day and with the added motivation of coming so close last week, should come out firing. Frankston will equally be as motivated to win the four points after being on the wrong end of some big margins in recent weeks.
Lions small forwards such as Sam Lowson and Hish Kerbatieh will be hoping Peter McEvoy is in as good a form as he was last week when he was taking marks, crashing packs and creating opportunities for his teammates at ground level. The trio kicked seven goals between them and will need to again be dangerous if Coburg are to get the win.
Will Fordham and Corey Rich headline the Dolphins that Coburg will have to shut down. Fordham is a dangerous midfielder who knows how to find the footy while Rich has kicked 27 goals this season to sit third in the leading goalkicker race. Captain Tom Goodwin will also have his hands full in the ruck coming up against Lewis Pierce.
Coburg
B: 17. L Dickson 43. H.Nolan 9.N.Blair
HB: 36. J.Guthrie 10.S.Gregory 23.J.McDonald
C: 2.J.Corigliano 8.N.Mellington 5.R.Exon
HF: 42.M.Lentini 16. J.Fox 18. S.Lowson
F: 32. B.Cannolo 12.P.McEvoy 3. H.Kerbatieh
R: 29. T.Goodwin 1.B.Allan 11.L.Bunker
23P: 24.B.Bernacki
Int from: 34.T.Lever, 37.J.Murphy, 20.M.Conn, 33.J.Weightman, 30.J.O’Donoghue, 13.T.Condon, 41.M.Kovacevic, 15.J.Iacobaccio.
Frankston
B: 21. D. Allsop, 22. J. Batchelor, 35. J. Bateman
HB: 6. L. Williams, 30. K. Gray, 46. L. Young
C: 8. A. Ferreira, 5. W. Fordham, 15. A. Jarnestrom
HF: 28. L. Gill-Renouf, 27. M. McCarthy, 11. B. Mullane
F: 3. C. Rich, 4. T. Elton, 31. R. Turnbull
R: 1. L. Pierce, 17. A. Harnett, 20. N. Scagliarini
Int: 50. K. Downie, 42. B. Hillard, 34. N. Hura, 41. T. Kelly, 13. J. Lovett, 33. J. McHale, 23. D. Wyatt
23P: 48. A. Paterson
