A BRILLIANT start and strong finish helped Northern Jets tune up for finals with a 52-point victory over Marrar on Saturday.
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The Jets ensured there will be plenty of pressure on the Bombers in the final fortnight of the home and away season, running out big winners 16.8 (104) to 8.4 (52) at Langtry Oval.
A wounded Bombers outfit recovered from a slow start to close within 19 points late in the third term, and then missed three shots on goal to start the last quarter.
With Marrar coming and the margin at 21 points, the Jets responded and finished the game full of running as they piled on five unanswered goals to run out easy winners.
While the Jets have a fortnight to prepare for an elimination final, the heat well and truly turns up on fifth-placed Marrar, who have lost five of their last six games.
The Bombers lost key defender Clint Taylor (shoulder) and assistant coach Cal Gardner (ankle) to injury and must regroup to beat Charles Sturt University at Peter Hastie Oval next week to stay alive.
In contrast, the Jets have Barellan and then a bye as they prepare for their return to finals.
“It looks like we’ll probably be playing (Marrar) but stranger things have happened,” Northern Jets co-coach Darren Jackson said.
“To their credit, they just kept coming. I thought we played some very good footy, we just had a passage in the second quarter and a passage in the third quarter where we just dropped off a bit.
“I was pretty happy with it today, we had five blokes pull out on Thursday night so to get a win like that is pretty important to us.
“We just won’t be able to afford lapses in finals footy like we did today.”
Justin Mesman, Josh Plozza, Stu Hutchins, Dane Keenes and Ned Fisher will all be back for next week’s Barellan clash, then the Jets get a week off to prepare for the elimination final.
Both teams face a nervous wait, however, with Daniel Burkinshaw (charging) and Jack Fisher (rough conduct) both reported.
Marrar coach Matt Molkentin knows where the Bombers are at.
“If we want to be playing the Jets again, come three weeks time, we’ve got to get the next two and improve a lot,” Molkentin said.
“It’s just hard to try to find consistency. We show glimpses in games, we play good footy for halves or quarters but then just lose it.”
Chris Bell sparked the Jets with three first quarter goals, while Mitch Haddrill, Mitch Maguire and Sam Fisher were all good.
Chris O’Donnell and Nick Molkentin were Marrar’s best.
