Tara Murray
The Hume City Broncos got an insight to what Big V men’s championship finals might look like in a few weeks time on the weekend.
The Broncos entered the weekend’s matches, one of three sides at the top of the table equal on points.
The Broncos had back-to-back matches against those other two sides, Wyndham and the Sunbury Jets.
The first of those matches against Wyndham was disappointing, with Wyndham having a big win, 107-81.
Wyndham led by 19 points at quarter time and the Broncos never recovered.
All five starters scored double figures for the Broncos.
Sunday’s match against the Jets was much closer with scores locked at 97-a piece at the final whistle.
A 16-7 overtime period gave the Broncos a 113-104 win. Troyce Manassa top scored with 36 points.
Speaking before the weekend’s matches, Foster said they were keen to see how they would go against the other teams in the top three.
He said it would have been massive to win both games, they would have been happy with splitting them and it wouldn’t have been good had they dropped both of them.
“They are the big sides,” he said. “Wyndham set the standard the last couple of years. Sunbury has had a couple of losses and they will want to get back to some form.
“To see where we are at with two weeks left before play offs is really good. It gives us a little time to make any adjustments if we need to.”
The weekend’s results has the Broncos sitting in second spot, behind Wyndham and equal on percentage with Sunbury, which is third.
The Keysborough Cougars are only a game behind, while Melbourne University and the McKinnon Cougars are fighting for fifth spot.
Foster said with the closeness of the competition, they are in a good position heading into the pointy end of the season.
“We are pretty happy with how we are going,” he said. “We lost a couple of games and we had a few injuries, but we are a bit healthier now.
“We’re pretty happy at the moment, but we can’t rest with how tight it is. We’re back to a full squad, it could come down to which team has everyone healthy at this time of year.”
Foster said they hadn’t looked too far ahead where they might finish with finals. He said finishing first and getting the week off might not be the best thing if the team is on a run, but could be helpful if they had injuries.
The Broncos this week face Keysborough before finishing the regular season off against ninth placed Western Port.
The Broncos women’s side lost to the Sunbury Jets on Sunday, 70-62.
The Jets won the first three quarters narrowly, before the Broncos won the final quarter, 24-22.
The Broncos now sit in sixth spot.
