CAK ready for challenge against Leeton

CAK will make one of the hardest road trips in the competition on Saturday to play Leeton at Leeton Showground and the assignment will be tougher given the Crows need to win to stay in touch with the top-five with finals looming.

Lenon admitted CAK would be prepared for a stern challenge from a desperate Leeton outfit but said the Crows’ mindset would have no bearing on the way the Demons played on Saturday.

“For sure, they (Leeton) will be very keen to win because their season is pretty much on the line,” Lenon said.

“But they are always hard to beat over there at Leeton – last year they got over us quite comfortably over there and taught us a lesson.

“It’ll be tough and we are expecting that but at the end of the day it is just another game of footy.

“You shouldn’t vary your preparation too much from week to week and we will be treating this game the same as any other one.”

With five rounds remaining until the finals, Leeton sits in sixth position, one-win behind fifth-placed Mangoplah-Cookardinia-United-Eastlakes.

CAK sits higher up the ladder in third position but the Demons will be just as determined to win on Saturday given they are only ahead of Wagga Tigers by percentage in the race for the all-important double chance.

Both clubs enjoyed the general bye last week and prior to the break CAK went down by 23 points to undefeated premiership favourite Coolamon while Leeton suffered a loss to MCUE.

Lenon said he was not disappointed with CAK’s performance against Coolamon and highlighted some key points to come out of the game.

“There were a fair few positives that we took out of it,” Lenon said.

“We had more scoring shots and Coolamon did lead all day and deserved to win but there were patches of the game where we were very competitive with them.

“It wasn’t all doom and gloom and we can take some real positives out of it.”

CAK added a Saturday training session last week to make up for the lost game due to the bye, and the Demons will welcome back key ruckman Chris Jackson and Dan Kennedy from injury against Leeton.

“We should come up fresh and ready to go after the week off,” Lenon said.

“We won’t lose anyone from our last game and we have Chris Jackson and Dan Kennedy to come back in.

“We will have no excuses and we are looking forward to the challenge.”

Adding further strength to CAK’s cause, Lenon said there were a number of players in reserve grade, including Nick Kennedy and Michael Cavarra who were also staking claims for selection.

Lenon said the key to CAK beating Leeton would be simple.

“We need an even spread of contributors,” Lenon said.

“We just need everyone chipping in and doing their bit.

“If we can do that then scoreboard and result should take care of itself.”

RFL – round 14

Saturday

Leeton-Whitton v CAK at Leeton Showground

MCUE v Turvey Park at Mangoplah Sportsground

Wagga Tigers v Griffith at Robertson Oval

Sunday

Coolamon v Narrandera at Kindra Park