A Bega-Tathra Sea Eagle is a few boots shy of hitting a tremendous milestone.
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With Saturday’s final round of the regular SCAFL season looming, Adam Blacka sits seven goals away from cracking 100.
The competition front-running Sea Eagles will face the Eden Whalers on Saturday with a massive effort expected from Blacka to clock over the triple digits.
“Everything we do, we do it as a team,” senior coach Brad McBain said “but there are some individual honours along the way”.
Blacka has been a leading goal kicker for the team with a grizzly doggedness in contested marks and a quick side-step providing him snap shots on goal under pressure.
So the coach thinks the forward should go close, but will not give any special treatment to Blacka on the day.
“We hope he gets there, but we’re not going to leave him one out in the goal square and push the whole team up just to get him there,” McBain said.
“But we do reckon he’ll go close and hopefully he can get there.
“It’s a massive effort from him, standing at 93 goals and if he turns up on the weekend like he has done for most of this season he should hit the magical figure.”
McBain said 100 goals was a great milestone for any player, but even moreso for someone in a shorter season format.
The Eagles are fresh off a bruising contest with the Diggers, but the coach said he will not be changing the line-up, saying it was good to “be hardened by the test” ahead of finals play in the coming weeks.
“We’re not going to muck around with the line-up,” he said.
“We’ll control what we can and go into the game with every confidence in the team we have got.”
The day will be a double header for the Sea Eagles with the women’s team also looking to wrap up an undefeated season.
The Eden Whalers women are sitting second on the ladder, boasting an impressive record of just two losses for the season.
Both those defeats came at the hands of the Sea Eagles, but there hasn’t been much to divide the two top teams.
Proponents of the game are already hailing Saturday’s match as a preview to the inaugural women’s SCAFL grand final.
Captain for the Sea Eagles Eloise Russell has her troops primed for the contest, ball control, speed and accuracy will be the keys to the castle.
Eden packs long-range potential with the devastating boots of the Mitchell sisters and determined tackling prowess through the midfield and front line.
Russell will look to her midfield and flankers to outrun the Eden ladies, with strong efforts anticipated from on-ballers Tyjana Thelan and Tarni Evans.
The final round will see the Sea Eagles head to the Eden Cricket Ground with women’s play from 1.15pm and seniors at 2.30pm.