Pies to test Carey Park’s hot streak

AFTER being hit hard by a combination of injuries and a horror schedule to start the season, Carey Park has won four games on the trot and looks much closer to the team that many predicted would challenge for the flag in October.

Boasting a host of former premiership winners, a deep and experienced midfield rotation and two proven goal kickers in captain Matt Martin and crumbing forward Arron Hill, the Panthers have all the pieces to make a deep finals run this year.

Throw in the offseason acquisition of ill-disciplined but unquestionably talented centre half back Riley Hutchinson as well as the return from injury of classy ruckman Michael Robinson and it came as a shock to see John Baggetta’s side languishing in seventh with just one win after round four.

With a steady stream of top end talent returning to the park in recent rounds the Panthers have clawed their way back to fourth and can set themselves up nicely for the second half of the season with victory over the fifth-placed Magpies on Sunday.

“There is a bit of a gap between the top sides and the bottom sides this year so you can’t read too much into form, ” Baggetta said.

“From our point of view we’ve slowly been getting guys back into the team and our recent results indicate that we’re probably closer to the better sides than we were at the start of the season.”

After leading the Boomers at three quarter time and consecutive thrashings of Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault and Augusta-Margaret River, Busselton definitely ranks among those better sides.

Led by tireless captain Dan McGinlay, the Magpies have run lesser opposition off their legs this year but Baggetta believes his midfield has the talent, and the endurance, to keep up.

“Busselton over the last five or six years has used the handball spread very well and if you don’t put pressure on them it doesn’t matter where you sit on the ladder, you’re always going to struggle, ” Baggetta said.

“McGinlay is a good player and a line breaker but I’m not big on tagging, we’d rather win enough ball ourselves that he has to chase us.

“We’re now putting close to our strongest midfield together and it will be up to those guys to rotate and keep themselves fresh throughout the game.”

How well Robinson, one of the competition’s most technically sound ruckman, competes with Magpie Brent Hall, one of the most imposing, will also play an important part in deciding Sunday’s winner.

In other round nine games, the Lions and Dons both try to get their seasons back on track when they meet at Brunswick Oval on Saturday. The Collie Eagles host the Harvey Bulls and the Tigers travel to Gloucester Park to take on the struggling Hawks.