WENTWORTH playing coach Wade Hancock has lit the fuse for a potentially explosive SFNL senior clash with Robinvale Euston on Saturday, labelling the Eagles “disrespectful” and “motivated by money”.
Hancock, a goalkicking star for his table-topping team, launched a stinging game-eve attack against the fourth-placed Eagles (4-3), who will host the encounter on a day of two premiership-winning reunions for the club.
The league’s dominant player, who has kicked 39 goals in his side’s seven straight wins, didn’t hold back when asked for his assessment of the Eagles.
“They’ve been going around town saying that we’re pretenders and we’re no good. We’re 7-0 and we deserve more respect,” Hancock said on Thursday.
“It’s what happens when a club is motivated by money.”
Eagles playing coach Andrew Richardson revealed earlier in the week that his team would come up with a plan to nullify the influence of Hancock and two other Roo aces, Andy Wall and Nick Cottrell.
In response, Hancock said: “If they want to target Andy, Nick and myself, that’s fine. We have plenty of other blokes in our team ready to step up.
“They’ll be motivated by their reunions, but we’ll be even more motivated to send them home with a loss.”
Richardson was more circumspect when asked for his assessment of the Roos.
“When they’re up and about, they play some good footy,” he said.
“I’ve watched a fair few of their games and we’ll try to put a plan in place to nullify some of their more influential players.
“The midfield battle will be crucial. We want to be giving our forwards every opportunity to execute goals.
“Andy Wall is really vital for them and seems to get in the right place at the right time. With Wade, if he’s on, he’s on. We’ll just need to keep a close check on him.
“And Nick Cottrell is probably just as dangerous as any of them. We’ll be putting a fair bit of time into him and Andy, to be honest.”
Richardson said there was bound to be a bumper crowd at John James Oval on Saturday, with the 2010 seniors and 2011 reserves flag-winning teams having a reunion at the ground.
“It’ll be a big day for our club. We’ll have a big turnout, and it’s a critical game for us as well,” he said.
He said his side was in good form despite a 40-point loss to Ouyen United last week.
“I thought we played well against Ouyen,” Richardson said. “We had the same amount of scoring shots as them, but we didn’t take our chances and hit the post five or six times.
“We felt like we were on top for the majority of the game.”
The Roos will welcome back several key players after last week’s narrow win over cellar-dwellers South Mildura.
They have also retained former AFL player Derek Eggmolesse-Smith for another game at half-forward.
Hancock said the struggle to put away the Bulldogs prompted a serious team talk during the week.
“The exciting thing about this group is that even though we won, we weren’t happy with how we played,” he said.
“I got (club great) Aussie Cumming to come to a meeting on Tuesday night and we did a review of that game, as well as the past seven weeks and what we can be doing better.
“It was an honest conversation, and quite confronting for some. But that’s where our group is at. We want to keep improving and stay motivated.
“Teams are going to come for us now and we want to be at our best week in, week out.”
