FOURTH place, fourth place, fourth place – just like Jackie Moon and his Flint Tropics in 2008, the Orange City Lions are hell-bent on winning their last regular season game to guarantee themselves fourth place.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But where the Tropics wanted to win the Flint Michigan Megabowl and secure fourth as a matter of principle, the Lions want it to earn themselves a home semi-final.
But if they lose to Orange Emus on Saturday, they’ll likely slip to fifth and be forced into the toughest route possible on the road to Blowes Clothing Cup glory.
“We can leapfrog ‘Roos into third with a win too, but they need to be beaten by Rhinos so I doubt that will happen,” Lions assistant coach Josh Maley said.
“We know we’re playing sudden death stuff for the rest of the year. That starts for us on Saturday as far as we’re concerned.
“We want to be playing at home in the first week of the finals, and then we’ll go from there.”
Maley admitted his side will be up against the odds against Emus, especially considering he could only tentatively named a starting XV thanks to injury woes.
The Lions will be without skipper John Colgan, who looks set to miss the remainder of the season with a back issue, while Barton Young, Chris Senior and Ben Wright also remain under injury clouds.
“Well be waiting to see how they get through training [on Thursday night] before we confirm them,” Maley said.
“Emus have been the best side all year ... they won’t want to go into the finals after back-to-back losses.”
Maley said his side took plenty of confidence out of beating ‘Roos on the bell last weekend.
“It took a bit of pressure off us in a way. It also gives us the confidence of knowing we can beat those sides above us,” he said.
“This weekend I just think we need to do what we did against ‘Roos, make sure we’re in the game at the back end and trust ourselves to make the right decisions from there.
Orange City hosts Emus at Pride Park, the game kicks off at 3.15pm.
ORANGE CITY LIONS (to be confirmed): 1 Darcy Garlick, 2 Chris Senior, 3 Logan Brockmann, 4 Chris Barrett, 5 Mitch Pearce, 6 Feleti Wolfgramm, 7 Duncan Young, 8 Ben Wright, 9 Tom Nell, 10 Barton Young, 11 Taylor Smith, 12 Jake Davis, 13 Joe Lasagavibau, 14 Cameron Cole, 15 Sam Dwyer