In the later game, St Marys will return from a week’s rest to battle it out against Nightcliff with the winning booking a spot in the NTFL grand final in a fortnight’s time.
The Tigers will enter this contest with plenty of belief having already registered two wins against the Saints this season. They were able to overcome a slow start last weekend to ultimately triumph over Waratah in a thrilling qualifying final.
Brodie Filo was excellent last weekend leading allcomers on the ground with 28 disposals while Lachlan Tardrew and Cody Szust – the man who kicked the game-winner – supplied plenty of support through the midfield.
Highly-touted Victorian recruit Liam Wale-Buxton will have the ruck advantage while his Banks premiership teammate Jonathan Lanyon was a surprise return last week, playing his first Premier League game since October. Lanyon will add plenty of grunt around the contest and had an equal game-high five tackles against Waratah.
The Tigers have plenty of avenue to goal with nine individual goal-kickers last week, but they will want a low scoring contest, just like their previous wins against the Saints this year.
St Marys are a team who have been there and done that. The green machine generally produce their best footy at the business end of the season.
It can be tricky to navigate the bye in the first week of the finals, but coach Anthony Vallejo will undoubtedly have his men well prepared heading into their biggest game of the season so far.
Expect a big performance from Dylan Landt, who was held to just ten disposals in his team’s demolition of the Darwin Buffaloes in the final round of the season. Landt has been arguably the competition’s premium player over the past two seasons and looks destined to have another Nichols Medal around his neck in a fortnight’s time.
Nate Paredes is fresh off a 40-plus disposal performance while hard-working midfielder Seth Harris continually slips under the radar of opposition teams. Jackson Calder is clearly on of the best forwards in the competition and has a great record in big games, so the Tigers will need to restrict his influence in order to win this game.
The Landt vs. Filo contest in the midfield should be a beauty – two brilliant midfielders who love to break the lines and can be damaging with their long kicking.
Will the Saints juggernaut continue to roll on, or can Tigers coach Leigh Crossman come up with the master plan to book his team a spot in this season’s grand final?
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