Uni ready for major semi showdown

Uni players in preparation for their Semi-Final clash with Albion Park

Uni and Albion Park will both get the chance to take bragging rights and also to secure a Grand Final berth when they do battle this weekend.

The two teams who have contested the Grand Final for the past three years will be fighting for the chance to be the first to qualify for the 2011 decider when they meet in the Major Semi-Final at the Illawarra Credit Union Hockey Stadium on Sunday.

Unfortunately Uni were unable to gain more match practice in the lead up to the encounter, with their regulation season ending with a forfeit from Bowral.

However the players are confident this has not affected their preparation for the big game.

Despite finishing second to Albion Park on the ladder, Uni feel their victory against them just two weeks ago will give them the upper hand and their confidence is high.

“Obviously that helps a lot and we both had some players out that day, so I think this week’s game will be a lot better,” said Uni’s Nick Jennings.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys in the side so they’ll come at us pretty hard and it will be very physical, so I think the important thing for us is to be able to muscle up against them,” he added.

Although they’ve had the edge over their opponents for the past few seasons, Uni are taking nothing for granted and are expecting a tough encounter.

“They’re always a tough side and it is going to be very physical, but we just need to take that in our stride and try and beat them,” said Uni player Alex Mackay.

“We’ve been playing them in semi-finals and finals for the last three years and they’re always big games with the crowd coming out and we’re expecting the same again,” he added.

“Everyone’s really excited.”

” This is what the year has been leading up to and we’re ready to go.”

The winner of the much anticipated clash will progress straight to the Grand Final, while the loser will get a second chance to qualify next week against the winner of the Minor-Semi Final which will be played between Wests and Robertson.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 30th, 2011 at 12:02 pm. It is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.