GNFL Round 4 preview: Pressure on bottom three teams Mullewa, Towns and Chapman Valley to make a move

It’s early days in the GNFL year but the bottom three teams on the table must make a statement soon. They are Mullewa, who gave Rovers a scare last week, Towns, who played better than their loss to Brigades suggests, and Chapman Valley, who face a big test this weekend. Towns play Mullewa at Country Builders Stadium tomorrow. Mullewa has lost 33 successive games but the addition of Callum Papertalk is likely to help. Then there’s Morris Comeagain, Leedham Papertalk, Kristian Papertalk and Leon Galby, who respectively have scored 155, 140, 121 and 91 goals. Add Kayne Little, Jandimarra Dwyer and Kayne Little and the Saints line up well. Towns has won just four of their past 28 games, all against Mullewa, but have some quality in Paydn Mason, Drew Forrester, Rohan Fariss, Tom Collins, William Faithfull and Denzel Gould. Liam Carlyon returned last round after a long injury lay-off. He is a Clune medallist, six-time Towns’ fairest and best and has 224 goals and 153 best player listings, but is unavailable this week. “I have work but will play when I can and the body feels good enough — just wanted to see if I could withstand a game, which I did,” Carlyon, who will be 36 next month, said. “It was great to have a run with the younger guys after over three years out. “If we can keep our youth, most of whom are just starting their league careers, we have lots of room for improvement and I’m happy to help any way I can.” Rovers and Northampton also play tomorrow at Greenough. It’s hard to say who’ll play for Rovers but a list with Dylan Curley, Shannon Cox, Gabriel Parfitt, Dwayne Nevill, Fraser Daly, Josh Simpson and Chris Scott is hot. Norths’ better players have been Ethan Brown and Tyler Caddy but they also have Aiden Bartolo, Braden Jupp and a top recruit in Will Thorne. Nathaniel Mourambine will aim to add to his 312 career goals, Trent Simpson to his 143 and Beau Walker’s skills are well-known. Ideally Harry Taylor is in but that remains to be seen. On Sunday, Railways meet Chapman Valley at the Rec. For Railways, Jesse Adamini is on song and Jack Cocking is developing well. Add Mitch Boyle, Max Newton, Ben Saunders, Jesse Moore, Drew Tunbridge, Matt and Peter Kimberley, Blake Bunter and Dillon Battistessa, and the Blues are solid. The Valley is determined to have an impact and with Jay O’Brien, Ringo McKenna, Mick McConnell, Mitch and Jaiden Thompson, Ricky Whiteaker and Jaye Colegate can do so.