By Connor Schmidtke
Round Nine of football in the EFNL’s fourth division sees a panther-fest, with Chirnside Park taking on Surrey Park this Saturday.
Chirnside Park have gotten away to a hot start this season, winning six of their opening seven games to sit second on the ladder. They have been masters of the final quarter so far this season, closing out three wins by less than 10 points and two games by just one-point.
Surrey Park have had a indifferent to the year themselves, sitting just one spot behind Chirnside on the ladder in third. Surrey Park have lost three games this year, with two coming against sides above them on the ladder.
A huge positive for Surrey has been their defensive presence this season, conceding an average of 60-points a game which is the second lowest of any team in the division.
Surrey Park are coming off a loss last weekend though, falling to Kilsyth in a tight seven-point loss.
The clash between the two Panther sides this weekend is not the first time they have met this year.
Chirnside Park claimed the four-points in Round Two, defeating Surrey Park by nine-points.
This is what we took away from that clash.
Expect a Scrap
Despite the close game and the 19 goals that were scored across the match, it was not a pretty one to watch.
Blustery conditions meant that 16 of the 19 goals were kicked down to one end of the ground, with Chirnside Park making the most of the wind advantage with a six-goal to one third quarter.
But the real feature of the game was the stop-start, congested style that both teams applied.
This image is taken from their first encounter in Round Two.
This was a stoppage on the half forward flank, and the first noticeable thing is the high number of players around the contest. Both teams swarm not only their midfield group to the contest, but they bring in wingers and half forwards as extra numbers to help put pressure on the contest.
What this created was high congestion around stoppages right across the ground, meaning neither team could create any quality clearances out of the middle. They were unable to get any fluent movement forward of the football, leading to high turnover numbers and lots of repeat stoppages.
Both sides could look to rectify this on the weekend, by pulling numbers away from the direct contest and opening up space around the ground to move the football. This will allow them to get more free flowing movement across the ground.
Both sides looked dangerous when they got the ball out into space, they just failed to do so for much of the game.
Watch to see if either side can break clear of this congestion on Saturday.
Surrey Park’s Loose Man
One thing that Surrey Park did well in the last encounter was drop a loose man back in the hole, helping to counter Chirnside Park’s Daniel Beddome.
Chirnside Park looked most dangerous when they got the ball forward to one-on-one contests, with Beddome taking several contested marks throughout the game.
Surrey Park at times deployed a strategy such as the one in the image, to help counteract this factor. In the image, you can see the intercept mark being taken by a loose man in defence, but also two other Surrey Park players standing unmarked in the space in front of Beddome.
This was particularly seen when Chirnside were kicking with the wind, helping to slow their movement up field and not allowing easy entries inside the 50.
This is something that Surrey Park may try again if Chirnside’s forwards start to get on top. However, the bigger surface over at Surrey Park may suit the likes of Chirnside’s smaller forwards, particularly Sam King, who has 11 goals in the last two weeks.
Prediction: Chirnside Park by 30
