The Ararat Rats will be hoping to extend their Wimmera Football League undefeated streak to four games when they travel to Beulah to face the Southern Mallee Giants on Saturday.
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The new Wimmera Football League team has yet to make an impact, winning just one of its opening three games with the Rats going into the match full of confidence with a win going a lot way to locking in a finals spot early in the season.
Rats coach Shane Fisher said the Rats will need to be at their best to get the points against the Giants.
“They have a very healthy senior list with a lot of experienced players that have played a lot of football,” he said.
“Our best football will compete with all sides and that is something we want to do week in week out, continuing on Saturday.
“We expect a tough match and are really looking forward to the challenge.”
Fisher said there would be some changes to the team that knocked off Dimboola in round three.
The team will be boosted with some key inclusions for the round four match.
“We will have at least two guys come in back, so a couple of blokes will unfortunately have to miss out,” Fisher said.
“Jack Ganley and Cooper Heard will both come back in plus maybe one or two others.”
Ganley and Heard should help the Rats’ scoring efforts increase with Fisher hoping the team can continue playing in a similar way to recent weeks.
“We will try and play an attacking game and put a big score on but I am unsure on how the Giants will play,” he said.
A big preseason on the track is showing during early season games with the team continuing to finish games strongly.
Fisher said while it was pleasing to start the season off so well, there were still some areas he wanted the team to work on.
“We have certainly still got improvement in us, we are only four weeks into a new season and we are training hard but there are always things we can get better at,” he said.
“We have got some confidence as a team but I would be saying the Giants will be backing themselves in on their home deck to get their second win as well.
“Ararat hasn’t been in this position for a while with a healthy list, so hopefully it can continue and we can get the win on Saturday.”
A win would keep the Ararat team entrenched in the top two, going into their first bye of the year, courtesy of the AFL Victoria Championships week off.
The first bounce for the round four seniors match is set for 2.20pm at Beulah Recreation Reserve.
