Dons face big test in Anzac Day clash
After fading late to record a 14-point round one loss to arch rivals South Bunbury, Carey Park is out to square the ledger when it welcomes Donnybrook to Kelly Park for the second annual SWFL Anzac Day fixture tomorrow.
The Panthers led Souths by eight points at the long break before the Tigers mounted a comeback – Carey Park coach John Baggetta blaming poor decision making in attack for the turnaround.
“Our delivery to the forward line dropped off and that was the main issue – they had a couple of good hit ups in the second half and we didn’t,” he said.
“I thought it was a pretty high quality game first up, there were two sides that went to battle for four quarters and the stats were pretty even at the end.
“They had four more scoring shots than we did and that was really the only difference between the sides.”
Two-time Carey Park premiership winner Scott Roche (corked thigh) was the Panthers’ only casualty and star ruckman Michael Robinson is due to return against the Dons after sitting out the season opener in favour of Claremont’s Mitchell Andrews.
“I’ve gotten to know Mitch over the years and a couple of times he has indicated he would come down and play and then got pulled back into starting for Claremont,” Baggetta said.
“He was available to play on Saturday and it was an opportunity to give Robinson an extra week off so it worked out pretty well.”
The Dons arrive in Bunbury after an impressive opening round victory over Augusta-Margaret River but coach Shane Smith knows his side will need to be at its best against the Panthers.
“Carey Park has obviously recruited well over the offseason whereas we’ve lost a lot of our travellers,” he said.
“I was happy with the win but we’ve identified areas that we need to improve to better ourselves and could defi nitely use a few bigger bodies, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
Playing at full forward Curtis Guglielmana kicked fi ve goals to star in Donnybrook’s win over the Hawks and Smith said he would consider leaving the utility in one of the forward pockets because of the move’s success.
“Curtis was a great target for us up front, his ankle is pretty much 100 per cent now but it worked well so we’ll consider persisting with it,” he said.
Vietnam veteran and Returned Services League life member Alf Mainstone will conduct a brief Anzac Day service between the reserves and league game during which Bunbury Senior High School student Kwergan Gregory, 14, will play the last post and reveille.
Donations to the Anzac Day Legacy Appeal will be accepted at all of the round two SWFL games.
