Wangaratta out to snap a long losing streak at Albury Sportsground

Remarkably, the Pies haven's beaten the Tigers at Albury Sportsground since 2005.

Admittedly, Albury has played finals since 2009 and won seven of 10 successive grand final appearances.

But the strength of the 'curse' is highlighted by the fact that when Wangaratta won successive premierships in 2007-08, it still couldn't win away.

Albury won by 16 points that first year, before the teams played out a thrilling draw the next.

And even in in 2017, when the Pies upset the Tigers in the grand final, they were crunched by 68 points.

"It's been years since we won up there," ruckman Zac Leitch admitted.

The twilight match (5pm) has a buzz to it and even moreso when Wangaratta and another top three contender in Wangaratta Rovers produced one of the finest games of the modern era on April 18.

The Tigers-Pies boast eight former AFL players, split evenly across the two clubs.

The Pies welcome back three of those in Ben Speight (VFL), Michael Newton (back tightness) and Ben Reid (rolled ankle).

"It's just good to have that high class standard, the match can always go either way and you've got to work hard to get the four points, that's probably the part I love the most is that competitiveness," Leitch suggested.

Albury is the only undefeated team with five straight wins, although it's the season's first top of the table clash with the Pies second on percentage with a three-one record.

The visitors welcomed back key defender Jamie Anderson from a calf injury against Corowa-Rutherglen last week after missing two games.

He missed the Rovers' loss and while Albury has a different playing style to the Hawks, Anderson says the club learnt a valuable lesson.

"I think the way Daryn Cresswell sets his team up, how they like to get numbers behind the ball and then flood through once it's turned over, we weren't as proactive in getting up the ground the way we should have been," he explained.

It will be interesting to see where the Pies play former Richmond and Carlton forward Callum Moore.

He can play defence, attack or ruck and with tall timber Reid, Newton and Josh Porter in the forward line, it was expected the big man would play more as a backman.

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But Moore won best on ground last week.

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