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Crunch games to test Royals’ mettle

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Cameron NewboldAlbany Advertiser
Cameron Allison, pictured here coaching the Upper Great Southern colts side, has joined Royals.
Camera IconCameron Allison, pictured here coaching the Upper Great Southern colts side, has joined Royals. Credit: Cameron Newbold

A testing fortnight ahead awaits for Royals as they face ladder leaders Railways and then defending premiers North Albany but coach James McRae is confident his side can start to build momentum as they chase a finals berth.

The Lions sit inside the top four with three wins from their first seven games but are well within striking distance of fifth-placed Denmark-Walpole heading into the second half of the season.

The fortnight ahead will be crucial for the Lions with fixtures against their two traditional rivals, followed by a two-week bye for the Landmark Country Football Championships.

Lions coach James McRae said his side would have a number of key inclusions this week to tackle the Tigers but their squad would be significantly stronger after Landmark.

“We’ve got to keep building and improving,” McRae said.

“The next two weeks we’ll get a few coming back and then after the bye we should have nearly every-one out there.

“This will be a good test (the next fortnight), it’s an opportunity for us to keep improving.

“Both sides we play are up and about, Railways are coming off a loss so no doubt they’ll come out hard.

“Last time we played them was a real line-in-the-sand game for us, we turned the corner after that and our guys know what we have to do it won’t just happen because we have good players to come back into our side.”

Veteran big man Andrew Ruck is expected to line up at Tigerland on Saturday afternoon after missing the past two rounds with a hamstring injury.

The Lions are set to regain Cameron Allison, Brandon Woods, Dylan Ford and Rory Callaghan, who has not played since last year’s grand final.

Allison made his debut for the Lions against the Kangas back in round four.

He is from Narrogin in the Upper Great Southern Football League.

He played WAFL reserves for South Fremantle in 2011 before coaching the Hawks to a maiden UGSFL premiership in 2015 and at the weekend was in charge of the UGSFL colts side at the Great Southern Colts Carnival.

“Cam is here full time now and we are very excited he’s at our club,” McRae said.

“He has coached Narrogin to a premiership as a young bloke, is a great guy and has great leadership skills.”

The Lions will be without key midfielder Cam Smith who is on holidays for several weeks while Jack Dawson is also unavailable.

McRae confirmed Taylor Powell would also miss while Dave Parker’s knee injury is still troubling him, putting his chances of return in 2018 in doubt.

The Tigers host the Lions on Saturday afternoon with the other two round eight fixtures at the same timeslot.

The Magpies will be at home against Mt Barker while Albany will host the Kangas at Centennial Stadium.

Allison is one of players named in the Great Southern Football League’s 35-man senior squad for the upcoming championships.

The side began training on Monday night under new coach Craig Dew ahead of the carnival in Perth on July 5-8.

GSFL Senior Squad

Bryce Blaszkow, Zac Pearson, Rick Wallis, Tait McLean, Marcus Mellon (Albany), Jaden Guidi, Luke Marley, Luke Hutcheson (Denmark-Walpole), Adam Tissott, Tyron Miller, Kym Monteath, Sam Lehmann (Mt Barker), Nic Barrow, Graham Ross, Matt Orzel, Jack McPhee, Lachy O’Shea, Taj Williams, Michael Trevenen, Luke Cameron, Stuart Parker (North Albany), Jayden Scott, Mitch Green, Joel Want, Kenton Gibbs, Ethan Knee, Tom Wolfe (Railways), Andrew Ruck, Rhys Jones, Cameron Allison, Corey Ward, Ryan Kinnear (Royals)

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