Saturday, April 3, 2010

Burnie to keep going at the top in the Northern Premier League


Devonport City will be in action for the first time in the Forestry Tasmania Northern Premier League competition on Saturday when they host Ulverstone at Valley Road.


Devonport had the bye last weekend and the players may have taken the opportunity to assess some of their opponents this season.


Ulverstone made a good start to their league campaign last weekend with a 2-1 win over Somerset and will be quite capable of making it two wins in a row.


“Our squad is much the same as last year, with only two notable absentees from last year in John Cornel, who is doing triathlons, and Callum Foote, who is having a go at the other so-called football code,” said Ulverstone coach, Kim Rigby.


“We have picked up three players who previously played for us, namely Ben Hutchinson, who has been away on the mainland training to become a radiographer and has been posted at a local hospital, Brayden Mann’s elder brother, Callan, who has returned after a stint at Aussie Rules, and Adam Beard, who hadn’t played the last two seasons because of schooling away from the area.


“We continue to develop our younger players and Michael Groom, Sam Wood, Phil Hall, Jason Singleton, Reuben Gee and Josh Lang have been added to our senior playing list.


“We will be missing two of our regulars in Adrian and Ben Foote for our game against Devonport, but their positions will be filled with Adam Beard in the starting eleven and Sam wood on the bench.”


Burnie United should win against Launceston City at Mitsubishi Park, although the task will be a little more difficult than the 13-0 win against Launceston United last weekend.


Launceston United have home-ground advantage when they entertain Riverside Olympic at Birch Avenue on Saturday, but this will count for little and the visitors should win.


Somerset should put last weekend’s defeat behind them by downing the visiting Prospect Knights at Cardigan Street.


Last year's champions, Northern Rangers, have the bye.

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