GANMAIN-Grong Grong-Matong coach Sam Martyn has urged the umpires to police the attention being given to gun Lions goal machine Riley Corbett as he prepares for a mouth-watering full forward battle with Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes' Trent Castles.
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The imposing pair at opposite ends of Mangoplah Sportground will be one of the main attractions when the two unbeaten teams clash on Saturday. Corbett has booted a league-best 15 goals in four games, while Castles boasts 12 in two games after missing last week's thrilling win at Coolamon.
Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong has amassed 470 points in four games, and Martyn said the opposition's focus on stopping Corbett had allowed others around him to take advantage of extra space.
But he feels Corbett may be finding it tougher to get a call from officials than he deserves.
"He's got a very mature head on his shoulders from a football perspective. He's had a couple of lean weeks I guess, but the calls haven't gone his way either," Martyn said.
"On the field you can see he's fighting against two or three because he commands the attention, and he probably doesn't get the calls from the umpires he probably should get.
"If you're a spectator, it's disappointing because you want to see full forwards up and about and kicking those big hauls.
"Hopefully the umpires have a look at it and are able to just be wary of it and allow him to do what he does best, which is fly at the footy."
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While frustrating at time, Martyn said the team and Corbett are happy to keep using him as a virtual diversion if others are putting the score on the board.
"On the weekend he was fighting two or three players at Leeton, but he's a very selfless player too. If he has to sacrifice his goal kicking ability for us to succeed, he's happy to attract those two or three (defenders) and we can use those other options to be dangerous," Martyn said.
Corbett's offsider, centre-half-forward George Alexander, is set to return this week after missing the big win over Leeton-Whitton with a corked knee.
"George's knee wasn't great last weekend so we gave him the weekend to freshen up," Martyn said.
"It will be an exciting duel to see Riley at one end and Castles at the other. It's an exciting match-up and from a spectator's point of view, you'll see a high quality game.
"We play a similar way in terms of our (fast) ball movement."
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