GSFL 2023: Railways and North Albany set to meet in special Anzac Day fixture to complete opening round

Railways will do battle with North Albany as they start their premiership defence in the Anzac Day fixture at Tigerland on Tuesday. The Tigers have lost four premiership players in the off-season, including dual-Kleemann medallist Matt Palfrey who injured his anterior cruciate ligament earlier this month. Youngsters Ryley Valli and Mohit Jaggi have both moved to Claremont while ruckman Xavier Brenton-Reed has moved away. The Kangas are set to have three fresh faces for the clash, returning pair Jayden Bootsma and Harry Smith along with new recruit Zac Lake. Tigers coach Mark Bayliss said he was looking forward to the special fixture. “I’m expecting a strong challenge from them, they’ve got some good young kids and are probably a five or six-goal better side this year,” he said. “We probably aren’t as fired up as what I would like us to be but in saying that it’s a long season so I just use the season to build momentum. “I’m a bit easy on them (players) early and then I start to work them as we go on, but overall I’m happy with where we are at. “It’s a privilege to honour those who went to war for us and we’ll take that privilege and use it with the respect it deserves. Hopefully the weather stays away for the start.” The Tigers were 33-point winners in last season’s contest and have won five of the past seven encounters against the Kangas in the Anzac fixture. Kangas coach Brad Bootsma said he was looking forward to their season-opener. “It’s always a tough start when you’re playing against a team that won last year’s premiership but each year is new and all start 0-0,” he said. “They’ve obviously lost one of their key players in Palfrey so I’m sure they’ll change their structure up to cover that loss. I guess on our side we’ll be focusing on ourselves and what we want to do, we’ve got a pretty young side which is similar to last year. ‘We’ve topped it up with a couple of others so hopefully we’ll put up a good show. “I can confidently say that we’ll be pretty fit which has been a focus on pre-season, the majority of the boys have done most of that work.” The league game will be played at 3.50pm on Anzac Day with the other three grades also played on Tuesday.