Charles Sturt University captain Tennyson Vance said finals is a “small, dim light” for the club but he knows it can be extinguished pretty quickly if they don’t pay enough respect to visitors Barellan on Saturday.
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The Bushpigs and the Two Blues are both coming off wins – Barellan an 84-point mauling of Coleambally, and CSU a two-point thriller at Ardlethan.
Barellan’s only two wins in their first two years back in the Farrer League were both against CSU.
The Bushpigs welcome back some height for the occasion, in star forward Vas Seker (who’s been out for more than two months with a fractured eye socket), as well as Dom Smith and Sam Balding who were injured against East Wagga-Kooringal a fortnight ago.
“Obviously the confidence is back, with uni resuming, most players back, and the injuries subsiding so we’re getting back to our full-strength team which is very handy,” Vance said.
“We can’t take anything lightly – Barellan obviously had their win and if you don’t pay respect, they can turn you over.”
Departing coach Daniel Athanitis has urged the Pigs to finish the season off strongly and that includes keeping finals in mind.
But Vance said they know they can’t get ahead of themselves at Peter Hastie Oval.
“It’s sort of a back-of-the-mind situation (finals) where each week we’re just focussing on the role and the game coming up and the things we can do to minimise our lapses,” he said.
“Obviously finals is a small, dim light that we could possibly make it but at this stage we’re just trying to get wins up and keep this good year going where we’ve turned the club around in improving our image and our respect.”
CSU had a narrow win at Barellan earlier in the year although the Two Blues were without star James McCabe who had a blinder against the Blues last weekend.
