AUSTRALIAN RULES
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He is a two-time premiership player with the Bathurst Bushrangers and if the side is going to taste victory again in 2015, mid-field star Paul Long will undoubtedly have to play a major role for his side.
Long and his team-mates will head to Bloomfield Oval tomorrow where they will face arch-rivals Orange in a major semi-final, the winner to earn a week off and hosting rights for the decider in two weeks’ time.
Whoever wins tomorrow, it would be a major shock if the two teams don’t meet again in the grand final, but a home ground advantage as well as an extra week to prepare will be a huge priority for both sides.
Long has been one of the core players for the Bushrangers over the last decade and has been a central protagonist in the growing rivalry between the two sides who have dominated the competition in recent years.
“We all know each other pretty well now, we’ve played a lot of games against them,” he said.
“It feels as though we know their pets names, who their neighbours are, we are all pretty familiar with one another. One thing you know is that you will always get a good game with them, and really they’re not a bad bunch of blokes.
“It is a good rivalry, a healthy one and there doesn’t seem to be any malice there, certainly not from my point of view anyway.”
Long was a non-starter last weekend as the Bushies fell a few minutes short of a start-to-finish win over the two-time defending premiers, who only led in the final minute after a Clinton Grambeau goal.
He was part of the team who broke their drought against the Tigers earlier in the season and feels that there is very little between them.
“I think we felt maybe last year that there was a bit of a buffer between the two sides, our self-belief was maybe down a little bit,” he said.
“But every player in the side has been putting in a lot of work and you can see that it is starting to come together as the year goes on.”
Long has been one of the classiest ball-users in his side basically since he cracked first grade in 2006 and last year had a crack at Foxtel reality show The Recruit to try and take his AFL dream to the next level.
Following that, as well as a stint playing in Sydney, he returned to the Bathurst club and says his role has been a more relaxed one, and he is enjoying simply doing his job on the field.
“It is nice to take a back seat, and just be one of the guys,” he said.
“I haven’t taken on a leadership role as such and I’ve missed a few games through injury, but I feel like it has been a decent season and that has been helped a lot by the general feel and morale of the club.
“Everyone wants to be involved and get to training as much as they can. It’s a good place to be at the moment.
“I don’t feel like there is any extra pressure on me as an experienced player or anything, it hasn’t been put on us in that way. Players like Matt Archer, Shaun Noyen and myself have a job to do and hopefully this week we get it done.”
Though the inclusion or possible absence of towering forward Jordan Longmore, who starred against the Tigers last week with seven goals, could be a defining aspect of the contest, Long says it will be decided elsewhere.
“If Jordy plays, that would be massive, but that’s not where it will be won or lost I don’t think,” he said.
“That will be in the mid-field, whoever can move the ball faster and execute their kicking better, as well as working hard both ways, will get the win. Hopefully that’s us.”
Tomorrow’s match gets underway at 2.30pm.