After Tocumwal and Berrigan kick off the PDFNL season on Good Friday, the Timbercutters will host the Blues at Mathoura Recreation Reserve on March 30 in the only other clash of a truncated round one.
Central to the match will be St Kilda great and prolific goalkicker Stephen Milne, who will suit up for a one-off guest appearance for Mathoura.
“People can come up and watch probably one of the best small forwards of his era running around and see whether he’s still got some tricks,” said Mathorua co-coach Tim McCormick.
“We’ll possibly use (Milne) as a live wire down forward, and hopefully, he can help us get in front of the ledger at the end of the game.”
New Blues coach Rhys Woodland believes his revamped side has the tools to deal with Milne’s quality.
“We’re pretty happy with our back six, so we’ll give them a first crack at it, and if things are not going our way, we’ve got a couple of plans up our sleeve”, he said.
“We’ll implement (the plans) if needs be, but we back our back six in to keep him at bay.
“If we can win the territory game, it probably won’t go down that end as much, so that’ll be our goal.”
Mathoura endured an ignominious 2023, managing only four wins from 15 league games, but McCormick, who pairs with Nick Ferrari in the coaching chair for a second season, believes a few key additions to the club’s list will make an impact in 2024.
“We’ve got Corey Farrell back at the club who played with us two or three years ago,” he said.
“He’ll be very handy with our midfield rotations, take a bit of pressure off for some of the other guys.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a trial and error to see how we play together, but we’re pretty confident going into the year that we can at least match what we did last season, if not improve.
“Our long-term goal, if we can win enough games, is to possibly play finals.
“We’ll obviously have to reassess over the first two to three games and see how we’re tracking but that’s what we’re aiming for.”
Meanwhile, United narrowly missed the finals in 2023, its 6-9 record leaving it in ninth place.
It was a story of two different Blues outfits across the year, with the team routinely putting up big scores against lower-table strugglers but being unable to break through against the higher echelon of sides.
Woodland believes the side has the squad to push forward into finals this year.
“We’ve probably picked up a lot more than we’ve lost,” he said.
“We’ve had a great preseason, and our juniors are coming through really well.
“We’re definitely looking to improve and see how we go, but we’d like to get a better win tally than last year that’s for sure.”
This round one clash shapes as a measuring stick for the sides as they set out on new seasons.
“I think we’ve both probably improved a little bit on last season or we would hope so anyway so it will be a good test and give us a fair gauge of how both clubs are going to track as the year goes on,” said McCormick
“(Mathoura) are always tough side,” added Woodland.
“So we’ll be expecting a fight on Saturday, and hopefully, we can come out on top.”
The club’s netball sides will also face off with the roles reversed in terms of last season’s performances with two new coaches, Tegan Wanganeen for Mathoura and Annie Jorgensen for Picola United to have their first test against each other.
Mathoura’s netball side had a promising start to its 2023 campaign but ultimately slid out of the finals after winning only one of its last six matches, finishing the season in ninth with a 6-9 record.
Picola United’s A-grade netball side will be looking to rebuild after a disappointing 2023 season where the side logged only three wins and finished in twelfth position.
