Boomers in Hodson’s sights

Busselton hope to make it third time lucky and deliver on their ambition to knock off one of the top three sides in this weekend’s match against Eaton.

Coach Greg Hodson said the game against the third-placed Boomers, the reigning premiers, would be tough.

“Eaton at Eaton will not be easy, ” Hodson said.

“They’re one of the tops. After that we have three sides that are below us.”

The Magpies dropped a place to fifth on the ladder last week, but Hodson said he was confident the side would make the finals.

“We’re comfortably fit, but the pressure is on ourselves, ” he said.

“We’re confident we will retain the spot. We will be in the finals; it’s just a matter of how long for.

“We have a month until then, so we need to get some good form behind us.”

Busselton lost to ladder leaders Bunbury, 10.10 (70) to 16.12 (108) last week, despite their strong form.

“We were off the mark, ” Hodson said. “We went in feeling good but were caught out by their tall forward line. We had three blokes back from injury and one of our best sides in for the year.”

He said the three defenders had been out for the past month but passed a fitness test on Friday.

“We matched them in the first and second quarters, ” Hodson said.

“They started to get on top in the third. We lost by six goals in the end. That’s how far away we are from the top sides in the competition.

“We had a good win against Donnybrook but we’ve copped the top three (recently).

“Our plan was to knock them off, but we’ve won zero of three.”

Best players were vice-captain Jon Meadmore, who went in with a tagging role, and Brent Snook, who kicked five of the Magpies’ 10 goals.

“It wasn’t a horrible loss but we thought we’d give them a run for their money,” Hodson said.

“We matched them for two quarters of football but they overran us. Their full-forward kicked nine goals.

“We needed to stop them.

“It’s not all doom and gloom but we need to knock off one of the top three sides.”

Sunday’s game starts at 2.30pm at Glen Huon Reserve.