Albury’s Brayden O’Hara says revenge will be a motivating factor when it hosts the only team to topple it in the past two seasons on Saturday.
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Wodonga stunned not only the Tigers, but also the league with a pressure-packed 40-point win in round two.
O’Hara is a three-time Central District premiership player and represented the SANFL, but he’s paid the Bulldogs the ultimate compliment, calling it one of the most frenetic games he’s played.
“Definitely, they put on plenty of pressure, probably grand finals, they’re pretty tough, but Wodonga was up there, that’s one of the hardest O and M games I’ve played in,” he said.
“They just attacked the footy and beat us around the contest and we’ve just got to bring the intensity that they had.”
The Tigers are regarded as the best and toughest side of the past nine years, so after three months of waiting, it’s payback time.
“Definitely, you never like losing, so when you come up against them that will motivate,” he said.
“They’re going to come at us and they know we’re going to bring that (intensity), so they’ll probably come even stronger.”
And Wodonga knows the Tigers will launch themselves at home.
“We do, but we do every time we play them,” coach Dean Harding said.
Harding maintains the modern-day Tigers are comparable with the brilliant Wangaratta Rovers of around 30 years ago.
Tiger Josh Mellington continues his chase of a century of goals from only 12 games, with 44 required from the final six.
The Bulldogs will look to ruckman Matt Seiter to dominate after he was sent off against Wodonga Raiders, but found not guilty of striking by the tribunal on Wednesday night.
“The rule itself needs to be looked at,” Harding said.
“It’s for the blatant king-hit or a really major incident.
“There’s too big a penalty for something like that happen to your side when it’s found your bloke hasn’t done anything wrong.”