A massive day of football action at The Canal with both men's and women's games at home. Our QAFLW squads host the powerful Morningside Panthers while our QFA lads face competition newcomers, Pacific Pines Power.
QAFLW
Bull Sharks v Morningside Panthers
4:45 pm Saturday at The Canal
Opposition: We are third on the ladder, and Morningside are fourth. Our percentages are pretty much identical, and we are both coming off really strong wins. This will be a really good test.
Challenge: We held to win by 4 away in a really tough grind against Morningside back in Round 4. In the end, we outran them with a big final quarter, but we were chasing our tails a bit all day. Morningside are a very good team. For us, the challenge this week is finding a go-to, four-quarter effort.
Shuffling magnets: Milly Ella will be away due to her Queensland duties, and Bella Iverach is out with a knee injury. Annabelle Foat is returning from an ankle injury. Tahlia Bortignon and Skye Emery are in the mix for a small forward role.
Ones to Watch: Tegan Williams had her best game of the season after last week, after being out for 6 weeks due to a shoulder injury. Aleira Usher had the best game of her career so far and was one of our best three players last week, so they will definitely be the ones to watch.
Focus: When you win well, as we did last week against Aspley, it's easy to assume things are running smoothly. But the trick for us is to keep banking wins while never resting on laurels. The girls worked well at training this week. I'm itching to see that translate on Saturday afternoon.
Final Word: This is the first game of a month-long stretch against really good opposition. If we want to feel confident about where we sit in the QAFLW pecking order, we are going to need to muscle up, knuckle down and hold ourselves to a really high standard across the board. This will be a great test.
QFA
Bull Sharks v Pacific Pines Power
2 pm Saturday at The Canal
Opposition: We are presented with something of an unknown this weekend as we encounter a new team in our competition - Pacific Pines Power. Based on their scores, they have struggled a bit in some games, but we will take them seriously. We always respect our opposition.
Shuffling: This week, we may see 5-6 changes again due to injury, and some of our young guns suiting up for the Suns VFL team. We have and will continue to manage the ins and outs.
One to watch: A club favourite, Alex Crow, makes a long-awaited return from his second ACL injury. He epitomises what we stand for as a club and has worked his backside off to get back to playing footy again. He will begin his return in the reserves, and everyone associated with the Club wishes him the very best in his first game back. We'll be watching with interest.
Focus: Heading into the unknown means we have to be absolutely steely in our approach this weekend. We play a side that we understand little about, so we need to put them away early and play a hard-edged brand that has escaped us somewhat in recent weeks.
Final Word: It’s a day to celebrate with a club favourite returning, and the best way we can do that is to get some strong wins and continue our unbeaten record this season.