Anglesea clash an “elimination final”, Schaller says

ACCORDING to Seagulls coach Sam Schaller, today’s (Saturday, July 26) BFL Round 15 clash between Barwon Heads and Anglesea is an “early elimination final”.

The fifth versus sixth blockbuster at the Roos’ Ellimatta Reserve at 2.10pm shapes as an enthralling finals race encounter with four rounds remaining.

Both teams are on 28 premiership points, with Barwon Heads ahead on percentage.

“There’s no shying away from it; it’s an early elimination final, really,” Schaller said.

“To go down there [and play away] against last year’s grand finalists – it’s a good test for us and something we’re keen to get amongst.

 

“I think we’ve all had one eye on it since the bye. We knew where each other stood. So it’s going to be a good contest for the neutral and hopefully we can go down there and get the job done.”

Barwon Heads beat Ocean Grove by 33 points at home at weekend in the Battle of the Bridge.

Despite the Grubbers being bottom of the ladder, Schaller said the Seagulls expected a tough game as both teams usually rose to the occasion for the longstanding rivalry.

The Seagulls got away in the last quarter after leading by five points at three-quarter-time.

 

“They had the strong breeze in the third quarter so we knew that was going to be the quarter to set the game up for us. It was [contain] them and make our job a little bit easier in the last quarter or if they got away from us, we’d really have to dig deep and find the result,” Schaller said.

“But our third quarter was awesome. We restricted them to a couple of points and then to kick two goals ourselves, made the last quarter a little bit more manageable.”