Ballarat’s ball-winning ability and key defensive stocks will be their major strengths in Saturday’s inter-league clash with Bendigo, according to Maryborough coach Shane Skontra.
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Skontra, who coached Ballarat to victory over Bendigo at inter-league level two years ago, said Ballarat will be a hard nut for the home side to crack.
“It looks like they (Ballarat) have a strong squad,’’ Skontra said.
“They are well placed with key defensive players in (Ryan) Hobbs and (Ryan) Luke and (Nathan) Horbury might play down back as an attacking defender.
“Bendigo might be best placed to play a mobile forward line.”
Traditionally, Ballarat’s strength has been its bigger bodied inside midfielders.
Skontra said Ballarat was developing a better balance between inside and outside styles of football.
“Bendigo is a more free-flowing style of footy,’’ Skontra said.
“The inside footy component in Ballarat is as much to do with weather conditions and the state of the grounds.
“With the redevelopments of a number of the grounds in Ballarat in recent years, I think you’ll find there’s been a slight transformation to more outside footy.
“Ballarat will factor in the size of the QEO and they’ll pick players who can run the footy.
“They look like they’ll have a pretty good balance.”
Skontra said Ballarat have always made inter-league football a high priority.
“Ballarat is big on the rankings reflecting where people perceive the competition to be,’’ Skontra said.
“They put a lot of work into making sure they are ranked as high as possible so that they can attract people to the league.
“They would have put a lot of time and effort into this inter-league campaign. They’ll be going to Bendigo expecting to win.”
Ballarat’s 23-man squad to play Bendigo:
Scott Sherlock, Jarrah Maksymow, Dean Heta, Jackson Bolton (Bacchus Marsh), Shane Page, Dan Roy, Brian Graham, Chris Graham (Darley), Daniel Tung (East Point), Nathan Pring, Nick Peters (Lake Wendouree), Braedan Kight, Jack Walker (Melton), Ben Sortino, Nick Kommer (Melton South), Ryan Hobbs, Will Young, Ryan Luke (North Ballarat City), Liam Hoy, Nathan Horbury, Chris Giampaolo, Callum Currie (Redan), Adam Short (Sunbury). Coach: Shaun O’Loughlin.
Meanwhile, Bendigo coach Brett Fitzpatrick will name his final squad of 25 on Wednesday.
The squad of 25 will have a final training session at the QEO on Thursday night.
Saturday’s game starts at 4pm.
