Both Weston and Hamilton would have been disappointed with their seasons last year for differing reasons, but with renewed, rejuvenated squads, their opening contest at Bear Park this Friday night is sure to be an intriguing one.
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For 2019, both these teams have made numerous signings in the attempt to make a return to the semi-finals but the big question will be how quickly the multitude of new faces can gel with their new teammates. This match will certainly give pundits a great early insight into that.
Olympic only came within one point of qualifying for last year’s finals, and if they hadn’t struggled as badly as they did in the early part of the year only winning one match from the first seven rounds, then they might have been found themselves there, although history is on their side when playing the Bears.
If Hamilton win this Friday night, they will have won 10 straight matches between the two (the last time Weston beat them was back in April 2014) . The Bears will need to end the trend to get off to high hopes they have for this year.
Weston has brought in some fresh faces as well as some old ones in Robbie Turnbull and Zac Sneddon who will both be making their anticipated returns this weekend for the club in defence.
There’ll also be a world flavour to this game, as each club look to try out their international signings in Jason Tjien-Fooh (Weston) and Ren Fukumoto and Shinichi Kawachi (Hamilton).
