THE wait is over. The most anticipated game of the Western Region Football League division 1 season has arrived.
Spotswood, the premiership favourite and champion in four of the past five seasons, plays host to Altona Vikings, the newly anointed challengers in a clash of the heavyweights at McLean Reserve on Saturday with top spot on the line.
Four intense quarters will go some way to answering these two questions: Are the Woodsmen stronger than last season and can they be beaten? And have the Vikings made up significant enough ground with their recruiting to be a serious challenger to the throne?
This local rivalry has simmered over time due to the close proximity of the two suburbs.
Today it is livelier than ever, thanks to the positions the two sides find themselves in and their recent history.
Who can forget last September when they played out a fierce preliminary final in the mud at Avalon Airport Oval in Werribee?
The Weekly reported at the time that the Woodsmen “dodged a bullet” to come back from 13 points down in the last quarter to win by a point.
Had the Vikings held on that day, it could be Anthony Eames’s team entering this weekend as defenders of the premiership.
But this is a new year, a fresh challenge for both sets of players, and improvements have undoubtedly been made to both line-ups, making this duel all the more fascinating.
Vikings captain Josh Russo told the Weekly it would be foolish for his side to seek revenge for last year’s preliminary final heartbreaker.
“That was last year,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of new players and I’m sure they would [think a revenge motive foolish], too.
“As much as we wish things were different last year, they aren’t, and this year is different and we’ll give it a tilt again.”
This is the one the Vikings had marked in their fixture book as soon as they came from the printers.
It will have a finals feel about it, a chance for them to earn their stripes as the biggest threat to Spotswood’s crown.
Only one team, Albion, has managed to disrupt the Woodsmen’s recent dominance over this competition when they claimed the 2010 flag, but many observers are tipping the Vikings to be thereabouts when the medals are handed out on grand final day.
On the flipside, many teams have tried and failed to beat the Woodsmen, especially when they arrive at the foot of the West Gate Bridge.
Player-coach Chris O’Keefe seems to always have the axes sharpened when a challenger strides down The Avenue and wants to
rumble.
Russo says the time has come to get a true measure of how much ground the Vikings have made up since last year’s finals.
“We’re looking forward to it.
“You obviously want to test yourself against the best and it’s our opportunity on Saturday to do that.
“They’ve been the best side in the comp and that’s where we want to be, so we’ve got to lift our game and challenge them and Saturday is the probably the time we’ve got to start doing it.”
WRFL HEAVYWEIGHTS
Champions versus Challengers
Spotswood v Altona
McLean Reserve
Saturday, 2.15pm
