Ground: Pimpinio Recreation Reserve, Saturday, 2.20pm.
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Umpires: G. White and D. Hutchins.
Last time they met: Round 15, 2013. Harrow-Balmoral 13.9 (87) d Pimpinio 9.3 (57).
HARROW-BALMORAL will look to build on the form it showed against Swifts two weeks ago when it travels to Pimpinio on Saturday.
The Roos won five consecutive matches to start the season, before dropping their past two against Laharum and the Baggies.
Coach Brent Forsyth said his charges needed to bring the same intensity they showed against Swifts after surrendering to Laharum.
He said the team needed to be relentless against Pimpinio despite the Tigers sitting at the foot of the ladder.
“We spoke about that a lot at training – that we can’t afford to get into bad habits in games that we’re expected to win, because that will flow on into our other games,” he said.
“We might have a few changes, but we’re looking forward on building on the progression we had two weeks ago.”
Included in those changes are Nathan Neumann, Damian Van Someren and Will Staude, while Dan Rogers and Rob MacKinnon are unavailable and Francis Mason is expected to be given a rest in the reserves.
Forsyth said most of the team would be rested after a week off, but it was also a good result for the club to have five interleague representatives.
Pimpinio president David O’Connor said his team had its back to the wall, but would give the Roos its best shot.
“It’s going to be wet and windy by the looks of it, which hopefully evens the playing field a bit,” he said.
“We had a good game against them in Pimpinio last year, but we know they’re better than what they were then.”
O’Connor said his son Todd was a chance to make a return in the reserves at the weekend after having previously been ruled out for the year with a serious knee injury.
He said the fighting spirit of the young and inexperienced team impressed him.
“Our blokes give it their all regardless of ability and who they are playing and try to fight it out,” O’Connor said.
“The blokes we’ve recruited – Matt Wilcox, Cam Dempster, Jack Wood, Sam Lehmann and James Wills – have been in our best most weeks, and we need to keep them and get more recruits next year.”