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FORMER AFL forward Aaron Edwards has cut short an overseas holiday to spearhead Peninsula’s assault on the Ovens and Murray at Albury Sportsground today.
Edwards, who played 94 matches for West Coast, North Melbourne and Richmond, made the six-hour flight from Bali to Melbourne yesterday before catching the team bus to the Border.
In a sign Peninsula means business, coach Troy Shannon said Edwards wasn’t pushed into an early return but simply wanted to help the league win promotion to the first versus second play-off match next season.
“He wasn’t supposed to be coming back until tomorrow,” Shannon said.
“We were a bit worried about customs and things like that but he changed his flight and texted me this morning to say everything was good.
“It’s a big, big effort.
“He’s straight out of the AFL and doesn’t owe the league anything. It says a fair bit about the bloke.”
Although Shannon rated the Peninsula side as stronger than 2013 when the league comfortably defeated the Ovens and Murray, he believes Brendan Fevola’s team deserve to start favourite.
He said the Peninsula defence needed to stand tall against Fevola and Prior.
“Obviously, “Fev” and Prior are good. We will have to try to stop the delivery,” he said.
“Most of these games are won and lost in the midfield.
“We have a couple of good forwards and the O and M has two super forwards.
“We will go in as underdogs. We rate the O and M very highly.
“We aren’t driving five hours on a bus to get our pants pulled down but we certainly know we will need to play well.”
The match starts at 1pm.