ARANA v CENTENARY: Sunday Sept 15; 11.30am at Brandon Pk
First Round: Arana 26 def Centenary 18 Second Round: Centenary 20 def Arana 14
Third Round: Arana 14 def Centenary 10 Head to Head 2001/2: Arana 2 Centenary 1
Last 3 Games: Arana: Redlands L 0-40; Logan Bros W 25-20; Centenary W 14-10
Centenary: Logan Bros W 24-14; Souths W 29-22; Arana L 10-14
It is the battle of the Panthers in the Preliminary Final, between 2 teams who will be very happy to have made it this far in the competition against more fancied rivals, but are also keen to have a shot at defending premiers Redlands in the "big one". Centenary have already survived 2 "sudden death" finals, with hard fought wins over Souths amd Logan Brothers, whilst Arana put in a gutsy effort to beat Logan Brothers, but were then annilihated in the Major Semi in their worst performance of the year. Sunday is a new day however, and neither team will be looking backwards, except to remind themselves that the 3 times they have clashed this year have been close, hard matches that have gone down to the wire. On paper there is little between the teams, and it is hard to see this being anything but a close encounter. The kicking game of Tim Mc was critical for Centneray in last week's win, and Arana will have to watch this, whilst Arana's first up defence will have to be much tighter than it was last week to control Centenary's forwards, including Tally W Prop of the Year Lagi Setu. Alex T's kicking game controlled things in the last clash between these 2 teams (in the wet) and Brendan will be looking for a big game at dummy half to keep the Centenary defence guessing. Should be a great game!!
"The Computer" tips Arana by 4.
Only 2 games two games left for the year - enjoy it!!!
Brad T
13/9/2002
