Teams ready for lightning carnival

With the GNFL season fast approaching, teams are gearing up for today’s traditional Mitchell & Brown Northampton Lightning Carnival.

The popular event is held annually at Purcher International Oval the week before the season kicks off, and gives teams the opportunity to dust off the cobwebs and prepare for round 1 with a series of shortened matches.

Northampton Rams president Colin Suckling said it was all looking good for another successful instalment.

“We’re nearly there, we’ve just got to finish marking the oval and make sure everything’s tidy and ready to rock’n’roll,” he said.

“The shire’s got the oval looking beautiful and looking at the weather, the gods are going to be kind to us as well.”

Suckling said aside from providing teams with match experience the carnival, which had been going for more than 30 years, was a good opportunity for the Rams to generate some much-needed funds.

“Northampton is one of the few football clubs that doesn’t have a bar … so we have to come up with alternative ways to raise money,” he said.

“It’s (also) a good chance for coaches, especially new coaches, to have a look at new players, old players, if they’ve changed structures, how it’s all going to work.

“It’d be great if a good crowd turns out.

“It’s certainly going to be beautiful weather … so it should be a great day.”

GNFL operations manager Rick Arthur said it was exciting to have football back for 2016.

“We had a really good finish to last season, so it will be interesting to see how the teams shape up this year,” he said.

“Last year there were teams in contention for spots in the four right up until the last round of the season … (so) if we can get a competition that’s close like that and competitive, we’d be pretty happy.”

Last year Mullewa defeated Chapman Valley in an exciting finale to seal consecutive carnival championships and are well placed to challenge again after Rovers announced they would not be able to field a team for their 5.30pm clash.

That means the Saints only need to beat Towns earlier in the day to be guaranteed a place in the decider and a shot at the $800 prize money on offer.