ARARAT will face its toughest challenge so far this season in the form of 2014 Wimmera Football League grand finalist, the Horsham Saints at Coughlin Park tomorrow afternoon.
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The Rats and Saints, along with Dimboola, are the only three teams yet to drop a match a fortnight into the season, but Ararat coach David Hosking said tomorrow's opposition will rightfully start favourites.
"We are both undefeated, but I think their undefeated trumps ours because they have beaten Minyip/Murtoa and Horsham," he said.
"Having said that, if we perform well I'm confident we're a chance of winning the game, because our best is as good as anyone's.
"We haven't had our best team in yet and we haven't played our best yet. To get the job done against the Saints we are going to need to have as close to our best personnel out on the ground and we need to be playing well."
Ararat will likely welcome back defender Zander Laidlaw for the clash, while Bernie Peoples and Ryan Bates are also possibilities to play their first senior games of the season.
Mick Fratin is a certain omission after injuring his knee during the victory against Stawell, while Aaron Searle is still at least two weeks away with the same complaint.
“With the exception of losing Mick, personnel will improve on last week and we will also look for an improvement from all our existing blokes,” Hosking said.
“I think that we can stretch them defensively, I don’t think they are overly endowed with tall defenders. So if we can win the midfield and keep the ball going our way, we will be well and truly in the game.
“Again there is no doubt with guys like Gordon (Laurie), David (Brady), Beau (Cosson), Xavier (Vearing) and Bernie in our forward line, I don’t think there will be many defences that have enough tall timber to cover all of those options.”
Cosson has once again been the Rats’ main avenue to goal in the early stages of 2015, booting a total of eight majors in the opening two weeks.
Hosking said the versatile tall continues to raise the bar with every performance.
“It is a bit like Alan Batchelor. Al hasn’t been in the best for the first two games and maybe that’s a little bit harsh and we are judging him by ‘Batchy standards’,” he said.
“Maybe we are starting to now judge Beau by ‘Beau standards’. If it was another emerging player that came into the side and kicked back-to-back bags of four in the first two weeks we’d be raving about him, but for Beau that seems like just another day in the office.”
The Saints enter the match on the back of a confidence boosting win against reigning premiers Horsham.
There is no shortage of talent across all lines for the home side, and Ararat will need to be wary of the likes of Jacob Cooke-Harrison and Sam Clyne, who are midfielders that can also do damage on the scoreboard.
Then there is the evergreen Gavin Kelm, whose pace, strength and general football smarts makes for a tough match-up. Either Laidlaw or Liam Cavanagh appear the likely candidates and will look for plenty of support from their fellow defenders including Jake Williamson who returned to form against the Warriors.
It has been almost 12 months to the day that Ararat caused a massive upset against the Saints at Coughlin Park by 10 points. Hosking said there is no reason why his team can’t do it again.
“To win it will take a repeat of last year’s performance,” he said.
“That day our intensity was almost manic like, particularly our defensive intensity. I can’t remember saying anything particularly startling that day, but for some reason everyone bought in.
“We stopped their play on and switching and everyone realised our structures were working, so it all came together perfectly.
“That is the level you have to be at to be competitive in this competition. We need that consistent output.”