Do-or-die clash in AFL finals

By ROBSON AKIS
IT will be the clash of the cats in tomorrow’s preliminary final in Port Moresby AFL competition.
And the frills and thrills of finals football at Amini Park will be even greater as Moore Printing University Tigers step up their rivalry against Hitron Bomana Cats for the right to meet Lamana Dockers in next week’s grand final.
The Tigers pulled off a stunning 14-point victory over Remington Gordon Kokofas in a minor semi-final last week while the Cats dominated the Dockers for the best part of the major semi-final clash before falling off to a timid four-point loss.
Both teams boast of exciting young players most of them who made their debut in the fourth International Cup tournament in Sydney and Melbourne in August.
The Cats will be banking on AFL drafted youngsters Gideon Simon, Brendon Beno, Theo Gavuri and Richard Stagman to lead the way while Melbourne-based David Meli, Freddy Peni, Laurie Logo, Gagu Kayage, Bruce Sovara and Nick Apamumu will be the guiding stars in the Tigers camp.
The Cats’ Noel Maguna, Junior Jim, Ezra Kautu, Ori Nilmo and Max Lavai are other exciting youngsters that the Tigers would be wary of but little Jechonia Peni, Nathan Levi, Clyde Pulah, Tony Meli, Omaro Avia and Charlie Arua should be no push-over for the Tigers.
The Cats overall game pattern reeks of class with brilliant high marking skills, elusive ball runs and good positional deliveries, an area Tigers coach Walter Yangomina will need to patch up on to stay in contention.
Of course, the Cats will be taking the field with a 3-nil win advantage but if the Tigers show more grit and play open football as they did against Kokofas last week they should triumph.
The game begins at 1pm and it will be played over 20 minutes per quarter with 5 minutes interval.