Start the marination – Saturday’s local derby between the Kangaroos and the Swans at No.1 Oval is poised to be a classic.
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The fourth-placed Swans lost 16.13-109 to 14.12-97 to Narrabri on the road on Saturday, but will secure a finals berth by beating the Kangaroos.
The fifth-placed Roos’ 81-point away loss to New England on Saturday means they must beat the Swans and then defeat Narrabri at home, in the final round the following week, to leapfrog the Swans into fourth place for the finals. The Swans have a final-round bye.
Roos coach Tony Bishop said “it was a good run” for his side over the next fornight.
“But we’re not really looking further than next week. We have to win the game,” he said, adding: “I don’t think there's a hell of a lot of revving up or anything to be said by me on Saturday to get the motivation happening.”
Against the Nomads, Bishop said Tamworth only had 21 players including “myself and another 45-year-old”.
He said the Roos then lost two players through injury in the first quarter including the influential Nathan Vaisey (hamstring).
“That threw a spanner in the works, considering we had a competitive 18 out there at the time,” Bishop said, adding that the Roos struggled to “keep up with the young legs the Nomads have”.
The Nomads won 16.26-122 to 6.5-41.
“They peppered us with scoring shots in the first quarter and they could have been a lot further in front,” Bishop said. The home side kicked 4.11-35 to 0.1-1 in the first term.
Bishop praised the performance of Roos junior Cameron Holton in his top-grade debut. “He was in our top six players,” Bishop said.
