News

After seven straight games on the road, the Metricon Bendigo Bombers will play their first game of the season at the Queen Elizabeth Oval this Sunday when they take on the in-form Coburg Tigers in round eight of the VFL.

So far this season, the Bombers have played six games in Melbourne and one in Geelong because of the condition of the QEO surface, hence earning the name The Road Warriors, similar to the Mel Gibson movie character Mad Max.

The Bombers were also unable to play any of their practice matches, which began in late February, at their home ground because of its dry and unsafe surface.

However, with the QEO now in a satisfactory condition for football because of recycled water and recent rain, the Bombers are ready to host the third-placed Tigers in Bendigo.

"At times it has been a stretch for the players and staff to be travelling every week for the past three months," Bombers coach Matthew Knights said yesterday.

"It has been quite an enormous effort for everyone involved, and I think all the players have really stuck at their task well, they haven't whinged and whined about it and have stayed focussed on the job at hand, which has been a big positive of the first part of the year."

Knights believes the effect of not being able to play on their home ground this year can't be underestimated.

"It has an effect on your momentum as a team, and what I mean by that is when you win a home game, it gives you confidence as a group," he said.

"Then you might go and pick up an away win, and then you're back home the next week, and you have the opportunity to string two or three wins together.

"What we now have to establish is by playing on our home ground, we have to turn the QEO into a fortress for the remainder of the season to make sure we're winning a large percentage of our home games.

"It's a lot more difficult for opposition sides to drive two hours up the highway and play us in Bendigo on a ground that is fairly foreign to them."

The Bombers have won just two of their first seven games of the season.

But with Bendigo playing seven of its last 11 games of the season at the QEO, the Bombers remain right in the mix to return to the finals after missing out last year.

"If we win a large proportion of those home games it gives you a chance of making the finals, but in saying that, we can not afford for one minute to move ahead of where we're sitting on the ladder (ninth), and that's well down at this point,"

Knights said.

"We're playing a team this week that has won five in a row, so we know it's going to be tough this weekend, but you would like to think if we played to our maximum we would be a very good chance of winning."

Meanwhile, Knights says he is disappointed that Richmond star Nathan Brown won't be lining up against the Bombers on Sunday.

Brown, a former Golden Square junior and Bendigo Pioneer, will return from injury this week for the Coburg reserves, who play the Northern Bullants.

"You would like to have seen Nathan play being Bendigo born and bred, and he obviously has a good rapport with Nick Carter," Knights said.

"It would have added to the spice of the game, but I think it's going to be a fairly spicy game as is."