MATER Dei Catholic College will put a different Carroll Cup preparation to the test when they begin their title defence at Maher Oval on Wednesday night.
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Mater Dei will take on The Riverina Anglican College (TRAC) in a highly-anticipated round one clash and the defending champions should be ready to go.
For the first time, Mater Dei travelled to Canberra for trial games against Erindale College and Melbourne’s Hallam Senior College in March in a bid to be ready for the Carroll Cup.
Mater Dei’s preparation began way back in last year with “a couple” of training runs in a bid to be ready for the trial games in March.
They were even lucky enough to have former student and current Sydney Swans player Harry Cunningham conduct a training session.
New Mater Dei coach Nathan Irvine hopes the long preparation can reap benefits in the opening round.
“It was good to have a hit-out before the Carroll Cup,” Irvine said.
“Hallam pumped us, and we beat Erindale but it was still worthwhile.
“It was good for our boys to experience an intense type of footy and to see how hard the Melbourne blokes work.”
Mater Dei will not be at full strength for the opening round fixture, but either will TRAC.
Both teams have players unavailable due to representative commitments.
Matt Kennedy, Jock Cornell and Lachie Flagg will all miss Wednesday night due to upcoming games with NSW-ACT Rams and Greater Western Sydney’s reserve grade team.
TRAC will be without Charlie Bance and Harry Perryman for the same reasons.
Jackson Sanbrook will also miss the opening round for Mater Dei after injuring his shoulder for Lockhart last weekend, while captain Stu Carey faces a fitness test before he is declared right to go.
Irvine is happy with his team despite the missing players.
“We’re not too bad, we’ve got a couple out but it’s still a pretty strong squad,” he said.
“There is a couple of senior blokes we would like to have running around but it’s more important to have them at the back end then the front end of the competition.”
Irvine expects TRAC to prove stiff competition.
“I’m not real sure what to expect, we played them in under 16s a couple of years ago and it was a pretty competitive match,” he said.
“I’m expecting them to be fairly competitive but it’s hard to know without any lead up games.”
Carroll Cup
Round one at Maher Oval
5.30pm: Wagga High v Mt Austin High
7.15pm: Mater Dei CC v TRAC
