Ground: Balmoral Recreation Reserve, Saturday, 2.20pm. Note: venue changed from Harrow.
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Umpires: Bra. Campbell and J. Taylor.
Last time they met: Round three, 2014. Harrow-Balmoral 12.8 (80) d Kalkee 8.12 (60).
THE equation for Harrow-Balmoral and Kalkee is simple when they meet at Balmoral Recreation Reserve.
If the Roos win, they retain third place on the ladder.
If the Kees win, they take it from the home team.
Harrow-Balmoral surprised Kalkee in their first meeting with a fourth-quarter blitz that turned a five-point deficit into a 20-point win.
It gave the Kees three consecutive losses at the start of a season for the first time in 10 years.
Since that rocky start, Kalkee has rebounded to win nine of its past 10 games while the Roos have won seven of their past 10.
On current form the Kees look to have the edge, but it will count for little once the ball is bounced.
The Roos will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their 2004 premiership on the day.
Roos coach Brent Forsyth said his team needed to lift its standard if it wanted to win.
“Noradjuha-Quantong played really well with a heap of players out at the weekend, and honestly, we didn’t deserve to win that game,” he said.
“This week it’s a much different opposition, and for us it’s a challenge to see if we can improve.”
Forsyth said the thought of losing third place should not be at the forefront of his players’ minds.
“It’s a big game, but without treating every other game like this too, we wouldn’t be in this position to begin with,” he said.
“Our approach should not be different to any other week.”
Kalkee president Dean Johns said it was a significant match for the club.
“They’re in the same boat as us, hoping to get that third spot,” he said.
“In the second half of the year we set goals that we wanted to beat Swifts, Edenhope-Apsley and Harrow-Balmoral, and we’ve won two of the three so far.”
Ollie Young will come out of the side after a recurrence of his nagging hamstring injury at the weekend.