THE Hamilton Kangaroos’ run of home games at Hawkesdale gets underway when they host Camperdown in Hampden Football Netball League round two action today.

The senior footballers and Open netballers are both coming off losses to Cobden in round one, with Camperdown a chance to build some positive momentum ahead of reigning premier, South Warrnambool, next weekend.

Senior coach, Brad Thomas said he was grateful for the effort to ensure Hawkesdale Recreation Reserve was available, and backed the team to put in another strong performance this afternoon.

“The Hawkesdale-Macarthur club and the work they’ve done to make sure we can play there, it is a credit to them,” he said.

“We are excited, it feels like every game is an away game for us, but the boys are hungry for it and hungry for improvement.

“It will be the same for Camperdown and the same for us, but sometimes you can read into it a bit too much

“It should be a clean fast deck, so it will be good for both teams.”

Ethan Knight will retain his spot in the side despite sitting out the second half of last Saturday’s game with a heel injury, with the Roos also set to welcome Levi Dare into the side for the clash against the Magpies.

Thomas said having that experience in the ruck will be beneficial to the team, with the Roos winning clearances and almost matching the Bombers in contested ball in round one.

“Cam Whyte will go into the midfield, pretty excited to see how he goes, and throwing Levi’s experience in the mix, I reckon it is going to be great with these kids playing with him, coz hopefully they get used to him tapping to them ahead of next year,” he said.

“Over the off-season, we worked hard on a few areas and we won those areas last week, so we are just getting an appetite for small wins.

“This whole year is about developing a good game style, and just hoping we can keep developing each week.

“We haven’t even worried about offence yet, we are working around defence, pressing and pressure and contested ball, so we will work on that when we’re ready.”

With Camperdown coming off a loss to Terang-Mortlake, the Magpies will be determined to bounce back, with key forward, Sam Gordon, a focus to shutdown for the Roos.

“Big Sam Gordon is a good player, so we will just make sure the footy doesn’t get down there too much,” Thomas said.

“I think they have a few injuries, in saying that, every week is a challenge and we are just excited to see where we can take our game.

“We are just teaching these young guys the game, and the art and craft of it all, but we just have to be patient.”

The game gets underway at 2pm.

Netball

THE netballers will also be hoping to bounce back onto the winners list, despite the Roos missing some key personnel for the round two clash.

Kangaroos coach, Emma Sommerville said she was happy with last week’s performance and was excited to build on it again today.

“We are really happy, probably not the scoreboard result we were after in round one, but in terms of the court and the play and what we’ve been working on, it is the result I was looking for, and we just need to take that into round two,” she said.

“We have still got Grace Cleaver out and we have Clare Crawford out as well, but hopefully we will have a full team available in round three.

“Ella (Sevior) and Saskia (Gould) will be in goals, and hopefully have those two play the game out.

“We had Maddox (Ryan) on for the whole game last week, we got Sas (Gould), Imogen (Thomas) on and having Mim (Mimi Chun) on, it is a lot of court time and good to have those debutants.”

With the round two opponent sandwiched between two premiership fancies in round one and round three, a strong performance today will set the team up with extra confidence ahead of a clash against the reigning premiers next week.

“I think it will be a really good test for us and a good time to come up against someone like Camperdown, with South Warrnambool the following week which will be a test for everyone,” Sommerville said.

“All the courts are the standard size, for all intents and purposes it is a home game, but we play where we play and I don’t think it affects the game all that much.”

The Open clash is set to get underway at 1.40pm.