GVL | United ready to fire against the Bears

The round two Goulburn Valley League clash is building to be an absolute cracker, with both sides coming off round one losses.

For United, its 25-point loss to the Shepparton Swans was full of positives, with the side seeing 11 players run out in the red and the blue for the first time.

For the Bears, things were a little more one sided last week, however despite a 53-point margin in Mooroopna’s favour there was still plenty to take away from the clash.

United coach Paul Serra said his side was really looking forward to the contest.

“Obviously we’ve got a few injuries from last week but that’s footy and we’ve got some new guys that will get an opportunity this week,” Serra said.

“It’s always nice to have a home game, it’s good to be back on Deakin.

“Over the years I suppose it’s proven that there is a fair crowd that will go down there with it being Good Friday so looking forward to seeing all the supporters get down there.”

Friday’s game will be United’s second night match in a row, with dew on the field impacting the game last week and Serra said Friday night would be no different.

“Once the sun goes down it’ll certainly be slippery which is good for the spectators but obviously in country Victoria, when it’s this time of year it does get quite dewy so it doesn’t look as good of a game as it would be at 2pm but obviously it does draw in a lot more spectators,” he said.

Serra said United had not been focused on the Bears in preparation for the clash, with the young squad focused on recovery.

“Our preparation with a six-day break has just been about recovery,’ he said.

“We had a good, sharp session on Wednesday night and it’s probably been more about what we can do and we did a lot of good things against the Swans, we’ve just got to tighten up in a few areas and hope that we can do that.”

Proven goal scorer Mitchell Oliver will be missing from the United side this week after hurting his hamstring against the Swans and, while at the time of writing the final squad had not been confirmed, Hayden Brock looks to be in line for a debut.

“I think it will be a good game, Shepparton look pretty good in the vision I’ve seen of them and we were okay without winning so we just need to tighten up on a few things and hopefully bring that intensity we brought last week,” Serra said.

Shepparton United will face the Shepparton Bears at Deakin Reserve at 6.35pm on Good Friday.