Football
24 April, 2024
Youthful Demons and Saints set to light up Anzac Day
Horsham and the Horsham Saints face off in their traditional Anzac Day clash at Horsham City Oval tomorrow and a fast tight battle is anticipated.
The Demons are not the team from 2023 as they showed significant improvement in their 29-point loss to Ararat after leading at three-quarter time and being in the match for a long period of time.
Coach Jordy Burke said they hope to take advantage of the smaller oval.
"It's going to be interesting, especially being at the smaller ground," Burke said.
"We have a lot of young blokes and we will see how they are tracking and hopefully we can take advantage of the ground and kick a better score than we did last week.
"Stawell has shown they are a good side, so it's hard to tell what to expect based on round one, but we are confident we can match up well with the Saints, but we know we have to play well because it will be a tough game and they are still a good side."
The exciting thing about the Demons from round one was their ability to not focus on one player kicking goals as they had eight different goal-kickers.
The Saints enter the clash without Jacob O'Beirne who is still recovering from injury and will also be without Patrick Knott and Codi Kenny, and Saints coach Ben Knott said it allows some younger players to put their hand up.
"We have a few young blokes that are putting their hands up such as William Slatter, Bailey Brennan and Mitchell Amos who had good games in the reserves on the weekend," Knott said.
"Stawell is a well-improved and top side and it was good getting games into some of the other younger players and when we get a few more soldiers back we hope it will put pressure on selection with the young blokes putting their hands up."
Knott expects a quick game.
"I think the game will be fairly quick in ball movement as both teams have young teams and will be looking to move the ball as quick as they can," Knott said.
"Whoever can put the most pressure on the opposition and handle the pressure the best will come out with the win."