LAVINGTON is preparing for in-form Yarrawonga forward Brandon Symes to play in attack and through the ruck in Saturday’s crunch match at Lavington Oval.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While Symes has been a revelation up forward in recent weeks with four goals against Albury and Wodonga Raiders, the absence of No.1 ruckman Lachie Howe due to VFL commitments could force Chris Kennedy’s hand.
“It will be interesting how they use him, but I’d say he will play a bit of both,” Panther coach James Saker said.
“The conditions could come into it too.
“We’ll prepare for all options.”
Yarrawonga co-coach Chris Kennedy has faith in Symes playing well in either position.
“He’s probably more dangerous as a forward, sometimes we could go either way (ruck of forward), but he’s definitely dangerous as a forward,” Kennedy said.
“He can have those patches, hopefully he has another good patch on the weekend.”
While the make-up of Yarrawonga’s forward-line remains a mystery, the Panthers have also been shuffling their attack in the absence of suspended forward Adam Prior.
Brant Dickson proved a surprise packet playing deep against Albury last weekend while Marty Brennan and Luke Garland loom as other options.
“Both sides are in exactly the same spot, they know if they win, they play finals, the equation is as simple as that,” Kennedy said.
Both teams have 40 points, a win behind third-placed Wodonga Raiders.
However, Raiders host the winless Corowa-Rutherglen, so they will jump two wins clear of the loser.
Wodonga is likely to join one of the teams on 10 wins, setting up a cracking last round.
Yarrawonga started the season with five straight wins, but has lost six of its last 11.
Yet it boasts the smallest losing margin of any team, a 21-point defeat against Wodonga in round seven.
“We just want to improve our consistency,” Kennedy said.
“We thought we were very good against Albury (19-point loss), but didn’t play as well, we came up short against Raiders.
“We had a bad second quarter and it cost us the game.
“I think Albury said it on radio, it was hard-hitting against them and we had a lot of sore boys after the game.”
Six teams have won after playing the physical Albury outfit, but only one of those – Lavington’s win against Yarrawonga in round nine – has been against a top five outfit.
Lavington was severely understrength in that two-point thriller, while Yarrawonga was also undermanned.
