Southern footy previews

THE Southern Football League's Round 16 roster games will be played tomorrow. Below is  SFL acting media liaison officer Brett Direen’s previews of the games to be played. There are only three rostered matches this Saturday with Claremont, Dodges Ferry, New Norfolk, Brighton and Kingborough all having byes.

Sorell versus Central Hawks
SORELL are back at home when they host the Central Hawks at Pembroke Park. The Sorell Eagles were defeated by Brighton last Saturday at Pontville, but not before putting up a really strong fight and still being very much in the game at three quarter time in a plucky performance. The Hawks who moved their match Bothwell to Oatlands did little to help their cause as they came up against the might of ladder-leader New Norfolk and suffered a big defeat.

The last time the two sides met in Round 5, the Sorell recorded a convincing victory. The Hawks have shown improvement since that time and have been able to be competitive with most sides for a half to three quarters of football, but tend to drop off at critical periods of matches when "blow-outs" occur. They can match it with sides, as they proved early in the match against New Norfolk, but need to find sustained support for Travis Brown, McWilliams and Daly to record a victory. If they can put in a similar effort to that against Huonville in Round 13, they may cause an upset.

Sorell play their home ground extremely well, move the ball quickly and have dangerous players in Bentley, Williamson and Hitchens who can all be very damaging if not marked closely. The game will be won in the middle of the ground with the side that is able to use the football most effectively going into attack likely to take the points. Each side will need to ensure their match-ups are spot on. The Hawks' coaching staff and players would have this game pencilled in as possibly their last chance to record their first victory for the 2012 season, with hard games to follow. It would be a major boost for everybody involved with the club.You would expect the Hawks to be super competitive in this match, however as the game wears on you would expect the Sorell Eagles should have an edge in class and fitness and should pull away to record their third win of the season in front of their home crowd.


Lindisfarne versus Cygnet
LINDISFARNE will be back at home when they host Cygnet  in what should be the match of the round.  The Two Blues are hard to beat at home, and while you would expect the Port to be very competitive for the majority of the match, the Lindisfarne’s side’s edge in class and a big home crowd should be enough to see them record a comfortable victory.

Huonville versus East Coast Bombers
THE Huonville Lions will be back at home twhen they host the East Coast Bombers at Huonville Oval. While the Bombers will give plenty of cheek in the match all sides coming off the bye this season have struggled to win. Huonville should prove too strong by continuing their good recent form and record a good victory in front of their home crowd.