The Maitland Saints are firming as premiership favourites after demolishing top-two rival Wyong Lakes on Saturday.
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Tthe Saints beat the Magpies by 48 points to move a game clear of them on top of the Black Diamond Plate ladder.
The last major obstacle to claiming the minor premiership is their final game of the regular season against reigning premiers Singleton at Max McMahon Oval in two weeks time.
Saints coach David Ross said it had taken a while but the team was finally playing the style of football they wanted to.
“We’ve really started to play the game we want and apart from one or two players we are pretty much at full strength,” he said.
“Our biggest loss has been Jimmy Taranto for the season with a shoulder injury, otherwise the boys are pretty fit and we should have a settled side going into the finals.”
Former Cardiff Hawk Dustin Spriggs is starring in the midfield and Nelson Bay’s Andrew Thompson and Dean Notman, who returned to the Saints after a year with the Hawks, have formed a formidable combination in the backline.
“Andrew, Dean, Dustin and Pat McMahon form a pretty formidable spine for us,” Ross said.
“We have two or three legitimate contested and intercept marking backman now and we’ve surrounded them with some pretty talented youngsters in Harry Harbrow, Clint Warneken and our vice-captain Riley Newstead who can play there and run through the midfield.
“The younger guys have really benefitted from having that experience of Dean and Andrew around them, they are full of voice and are not frightened to let the older players know if they’ve done something wrong.”
Throw in Ben Crowley up forward, Ben Stewart in the midfield, captain Wade Beard and small forwards Chris Pedler and Josh Button, who returned to goal kicking form on Saturday, and the Saints are looking balanced across the field.
“We’ve started to give Wade a bit more of a run in the middle as week after week he was being swamped by two or three defenders,” Ross said. “His starting to find some form and it is made us look for other options not just bomb it on top of Wade’s head.”
The Saints travel to Muswellbrook on Saturday.