Stawell Westlift Warriors will turn their attention back on themselves tomorrow when they take on an improved Horsham Saints in the Wimmera Football League at Horsham.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Horsham Saints will be feeling confident after a grinding one point win against Minyip Murtoa last week and will look to make it two on the trot when they meet Stawell.
Warriors on the other hand received a football lesson from Horsham Demons and their confidence will be down.
It would be several years since Stawell defeated Saints and would certainly come as a shock if they were to get up tomorrow afternoon.
Coach Brad Cassidy is expecting it to be a difficult game, but thinks the focus still needs to be on his players.
"It will certainly be a tough game of football," Cassidy said.
"They have a really strong forward line and midfield group, but we can't just focus on them. We need to concentrate on ourselves."
Cassidy has changed his coaching tactics around in recent weeks starting with their training and preparation.
"We are doing a lot more ball work at training," Cassidy said.
"The more we get our hands on the football the better. Hopefully that leads to more disposals on a Saturday.
"Our goal is to have more handballs, kicks and marks as well as lifting the tackling intensity."
Last week Horsham crucified the Stawell midfield and defenders with their constant run and carry of the ball.
They were able to break tackles and find open men which meant for easy transition. That is something Stawell will look to rectify tomorrow.
"Not only do we need more tackles, but we need our tackles to stick," Cassidy said.
"We need to land a couple of big hits and then hopefully get rewarded with a free kick."
Stawell will also look to increase their talk over the whole ground.
Trevor Matthews will be a welcome inclusion into the line up and will have the job of running with Pat Knott.
Knott has had a brilliant start to the year and it will be a tough assignment for Matthews tomorrow.
"He might not be able to go with him for the full game, but we just want him to do his best," Cassidy said.
Cassidy is expecting Stawell teammates to help out with nullifying Knott's impact, but understands that they too have a job at hand.
"I'll raise the idea of helping Trev out when they can, but they still need to do their role as well," Cassidy said.
If Stawell is to limit Knott's influence it will go a long way to assisting them to victory.
The main thing for Stawell at the minute is to play their game of football, focus on the coach's key message which is based around their tackling and to play with confidence.
"We need to go out there and play with no fear," Cassidy said.