The Lions (yellow and maroon) and the Gamblers shake hands after a hard fought game.
The No. 9 San Diego Lions head to Las Vegas to take on the unranked Gamblers on Saturday April 17. Game time is set for 3pm (Mountain) at Swainston Middle School in Las Vegas NV.
The Lions kick off the 2010 season in Las Vegas after a somewhat disappointing 2009 and Nationals campaign. Head Coach, Simon Schenk, sees this as a good opportunity to get the club off to a good start and get some game experience for his players. "It has been a good start to the season thus far with solid attendance at training, and a great first hit out last weekend for our Metro season. While we’ll be missing some players on the weekend, it will give the new blokes at the club a great opportunity to shows their skills out on the paddock. Similar to each year we have a number of new blokes down at the club so we’ll be looking to build some continuity in how we go about our footy, and to work on moving the ball quickly, and effectively off the half back flank. We will be really looking focusing on securing the football. With some blokes playing their first game of footy, we’ll also be trying to make sure we maximise their playing time."
The Lions will be looking to some experienced Revos such as Brandon Blankenship and big Justin Valley in the back line and forward line respectively. Schenk is also hoping to see some good things from John Bucci in defense and Donovan Trost up forward.
The Gamblers are still are developing club and the Lions have held the upper hand in previous encounters, but Schenk is looking forward to the contest. "We’ve always had good hard contests against the Gamblers, and while their numbers have taken a hit in the past few seasons, there has always been a great camaraderie between the 2 clubs, and some great games of footy. As always we expect that they’ll be tough at the contested ball, which will be a great test for our lads."
