By Grace Knight
They put 100 points on their opponents last weekend and the Bull Sharks QFA men are preparing to pile more pain on the Coomera Magpies at The Canal on Saturday.
Meanwhile the QAFLW women are hoping to rebound from their first loss of the season when they line up for an away game against the Aspley Hornets.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of round 5.
Last time they met
Past form paints a good picture for the men.
When they last faced Coomera in their round 11 clash of the 2022 season, the Bull Sharks took a commanding win 78-35. In round 3 earlier that year, Bond also won 60-42.
The Bull Sharks senior women last met the Aspley Hornets in round 15 of the 2022 season, emerging victorious 43-13.
However in their previous encounter in round 4 that year, the Bull Sharks suffered a close defeat with a score of 34-43.
Returning faces
After losing 10 key women players to the Gold Coast Suns Academy last week, the Bull Sharks will be grateful for the return of some familiar faces.
Aleira Usher and Andi Heard are back, AFLW player Mikayla Pauga of the Brisbane Lions will make her return to the Bull Sharks, significantly boost to the team.
After thumping Ballina last weekend, the Bull Sharks men’s side should remain largely unchanged.
“The boys are all looking in pretty good form,” head coach Luke Mansbridge said.
“We may have one or two changes but we’re feeling pretty confident and comfortable with the players we will field.”
Ready to rebound
Bond Director of AFL and senior women’s coach Andy Lovell said game time and training was smoothing out the recent personnel changes.
“We didn’t really play our brand of footy last week, particularly in the first and fourth quarters,” Lovell said.
“Despite this they fought the game out and never gave in, so I was still really proud of them.
“We’ve been training really strongly and are hoping now that we’ve played together a bit more we can see some cleaner footy this week.”
Focus points
Senior men’s coach Luje Mansbridge and his troops have been hard at work implementing their new game plan and style. Now they need to improve execution week-in, week-out.
“Our main goal now is just to continue driving consistency within our players to effectively execute the new style,” Mansbridge said.
For Lovell, it’s all about seeking overall improvement among a continuously changing team.
“So far this year we’ve had close to 28 debutantes in the senior matches, so that’s a significant number of players,” he said.
“It might be a little bit of short-term pain while these players are adjusting, but in the long term it means we’re going to have a far more experienced club.”
Match Day Information
The Canal, Bond University Main Oval
12:00pm Men’s Reserves
2:00pm Men’s Seniors
Zupps Aspley Oval
4:45pm Women’s Seniors
6:45pm Women’s Reserves