It’s a big old occasion for Tatura this weekend.
Premiership glory will be celebrated at Tatura Park on Saturday as the club honours its 2003 senior football flag, while the current crop of Bulldogs are set to get a massive leg up ahead of their face-off with Seymour.
The club has brought in VFL talent in the form of siblings Liam and Mitch Podajski from Coburg, and both arrive with footballing CVs to make any Tatura fan drool.
Older brother Mitch is an excitement factory of an inside mid who can comfortably play up forward, the 192cm man averaging 23.4 disposals a game this season for the Lions in the VFL.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Liam is a 202cm goliath ruckman who spent time with Calder Cannons before graduating into the state’s top tier.
Both will join Tatura when away from VFL duties, including this weekend with Coburg having the bye.
The Bulldogs also welcome back firepower in the form of Daniel Weetra and Harley McCarthy for Saturday’s match, leaving coach Paul Barnard in high spirits ahead of the giant clash.
“This will be the strongest team we’ve put on the paddock for the year,” Barnard said.
“They’re pretty bullish about it, but we’re under no illusion about Seymour, they’re a very, very good football team.
“They play a great brand of footy, they’re well drilled and well coached – we’re up against it, we know that, but we welcome the challenge.”
Tatura’s recent form at home is favourable, pulling off a five-goal triumph over Shepparton Swans last weekend.
Saturday marks another chance to fly the flag at Tatura Park as club champions will converge for a celebration of the Bulldogs’ 18.14 (122) to 10.12 (72) win against Echuca in the 2003 senior grand final, as well as the 1963 thirds premiership.
“It’ll be great for not only myself, but some of our younger guys – some of them are not even 20,” Barnard said.
“It’s ironic that they’re having the reunion and some of our guys weren’t even born and now they’re representing the same club.
“It’s a really great time for the club, 20 years goes pretty quick as I well know, so it’ll be a terrific day for us, our past premiership players, our club and our community that we get to roll out again at home.”
Doing a job on Seymour is a feat only one side – Kyabram – has pulled off this season.
The Lions pummelled Shepparton by 90 points last weekend in what was comfortably Seymour’s biggest wrecking in a number of years, but will miss Rory Scopel and Nathan Fowler through suspension for the Tatura clash.
Tatura is also no stranger to outages after being rocked by injury throughout the whole season, but Barnard had nothing but respect for his youth group for rolling with the blows it’s been dealt.
“I haven’t had an injury list like this before, but it’s sort of soldier in, soldier out,” he said.
“We play the way we play, and the guys understand our ball movement patterns and the way we apply ourselves on the field.
“They’ve been really terrific, I can’t fault the attitude and effort of our players, they’re on a steep learning curve, but they’ve embraced it somewhat and they’re getting some rewards for their effort.
“It hasn’t been easy, I think we’ve played four of the top six and we haven’t been disgraced bar one.
“It’s a pretty pleasing sign from a coach and club perspective, younger guys are getting games into them and they’re welcoming the challenge as well.”
Coaches comment
Seymour coach Ben Davey:
“I’m expecting a good game; I really respect some of the players they’ve got there.
“Chris Ryan’s a great player, Brodie Meyers is in form and kicking a few goals, and Ethan Penrith is a very good footballer.
“They’ve also got Billy Cooper who looks like he’ll be playing more in the back half and on the ball this year, but he’s very good as well and I know they’ve got a couple of VFL blokes lobbing in for the weekend.
“They’re going to be a different team than what’s been on the park so far this year.
“We should be all right, we’ve got a few out for different things, but we’ll be giving a couple of blokes an opportunity and we’ll be going our hardest.
“It won’t change the way we play at all - we’ll be looking to play the same way we’ve been playing all year.”
Shepparton Swans coach Jedd Wright:
“We had a pretty solid review Tuesday night, we’ve let ourselves down the last couple of weeks with our defensive pressure, so we’re really looking to bounce back strong this week and put in a better showing than we have the last two.
“I think Kyabram is certainly in the top bracket of two or three teams this year.
“They’ve recruited really well and are coached really well, we’re expecting a tough task, one we’re looking forward to.
“We’ve been developing for a couple of years now, you can’t be developing forever, so we’re certainly looking to take that next step.
“We’ll be looking to take the game on and hopefully we put in a better showing than we did last week and I’m sure we will.
“We’re still waiting on three or four to come back from injury, but we’re pretty happy with the teams we’ve been putting out there.
“Our first four weeks against those top teams, we certainly played good footy and matched them for three quarters, and then got blown away in the last. We’ll be looking to put in a solid four-quarter effort his week.”
Kyabram coach Paul Newman:
“It’s a very similar sort of scenario to last week against United. I feel the gap, although the ladder might not resemble it, I think the gap isn’t as big it used to be.
“Those three Shepp teams, Benalla, Tatura, they’ve all improved this year.
“We have got to be diligent with how we play and continue to play good footy.”
“It was great to have Zac (Keogh) back in and around the group last week.
“From my perspective there is no expectation on his performances, he’s missed so much footy, so we understand he will take some time to get back up and running, but I think it won’t be too long before we see him back to the Zac Keogh we all know.
“Rhys Clark comes back in and we welcome back Archie Watt from school footy and Mitch Dodos from Pios.”
Euroa coach Scott Rowan:
“I think that Rochy at Rochy is another tough challenge. You’ve to be right on your game on the day otherwise any side can beat anyone.
“I said to our players last week that the challenge for us is to play four quarters of footy no matter who it’s against or where it is, so that’ll definitely be the main goal for Saturday.
“We missed a few tackles that we should’ve made (against Echuca), Sammy Reid’s a very strong man, but we probably let a few slip, so just that tackle pressure and making sure they count will be something we’ll have a bit of a closer look at.
“Realistically there was a couple of errors late in the game that cost us pretty dearly, so getting back to basics will be one thing and we’ll look forward to improving on last week.
“Will Hayes has a concussion from last week so he won’t be playing.”