NORTH Albury coach Jason Akermanis has called on his AFL contacts to fix the Hoppers’ defensive woes.
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Fourth-placed North Albury has conceded 881 points so far this season, with only Corowa-Rutherglen (1112) having a leakier defence.
The Hoppers have also been one of the most attacking teams in the competition, with their 878 points scored bettered only by Albury’s 1217.
Akermanis said the Hoppers, who have conceded 40 goals in losses to Yarrawonga and Wodonga in the past two rounds, had to become better defensively ahead of their crunch clash against Wodonga Raiders at Birallee Park on Saturday.
While refusing to divulge who he had spoken to in the AFL system, Akermanis said they were “close friends and former teammates involved at clubs in the top eight”.
“Our offence has been great but the issue for us has been the ease at which the opposition has scored and that’s been our fault as coaches,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to a couple of guys in the AFL system that I know about our issues and they’ve pointed me in the right direction.
“We want to make it as hard as possible for the opposition to score and that’s really been our focus for the past two weeks.”
The Hoppers’ defence will be bolstered on Saturday by the return of Akermanis, Rory Feltwell and Matt Endresz from injury while Josh Minogue will be a welcome addition to their forward line with the VFL development league having a bye.
The Raiders were set to include VFL midfielder Cameron Barrett into their side to tackle the Hoppers but the Northern Blues wanted the former Balranald player to have a week off.
Raiders coach Daryn Cresswell expects a “fierce contest” against the Hoppers.
“I know ‘Aker’ pretty well and after a disappointing game against Wodonga, he will have them up and about and wanting to do well,” he said.
“They beat us early last year and we see this is as a really important game for us building into the second half of the year.
“Both teams are on 16 points so whoever wins the game will gain some real ascendency.”