NORTH Albury coach Jason Akermanis has put the umpires on notice ahead of Anzac Day, warning them to keep an eye out for Albury’s “bully” tactics.
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Akermanis said the undefeated Tigers would try to “intimidate” the Hoppers, who have impressed in the opening month of the season to sit third on the ladder with a 3-1 record.
North Albury hasn’t beaten its cross-town rivals since 2008 and Akermanis predicted the Tigers would take a physical approach to build on their 15-match winning streak against the Hoppers.
“I’m expecting the same things they do every year,” he said.
“They’ll say it’s us against them, they’ll try and be very physical and they’ll try and bully our side.
“Hopefully the umpires are onto that, particularly off the ball.
“They will want to use their bigger bodies to advantage and try and intimidate our players.”
Akermanis, who returned to the playing field for the first time in almost two years against Wangaratta Rovers in round four, is set to miss the Anzac Day contest after playing for Park Orchards in Melbourne on Saturday.
He said while the odds were stacked against the Hoppers beating the Tigers, who have won five of the past seven premierships, he was confident of a strong showing.
“There is no such thing as unbeatable but percentages say you’ve only got an eight per cent chance of beating them,” he said.
“It’s safe to say the percentages aren’t in anyone’s favour but that doesn’t matter to us. They’ve had their scouts out for the last three weeks watching our games, they’ll have vision and they’ll try and tag one of our players, at least.”
Akermanis refused to pay too much attention to Albury’s 215-point belting of Myrtleford in round four, saying the Saints appeared to have suffered a let-down after losing to North Albury the week before.
“That was nowhere near Myrtleford’s standard,” he said.
“I think Myrtleford really threw everything at us the week before, thinking it was a game they could win, before going into Albury, where most teams don’t expect to win.
“That’s probably left them a bit fatigued and that probably showed in the second half.
“If it was round one and Myrtleford was playing Albury, it would have been a different outcome and a different standard of game.”
