The Kingdom’s Australian rules football torchbearers, the Cambodian Eagles, will host the visiting Myanmar Fighting Cocks in the second game of the season at the International School of Phnom Penh on Saturday at 11.30am.
The Eagles are coming off a resounding 55-point win against the Thailand Tigers late last month in a contest that saw a couple of key players involved in new roles.
“We had a lot of new players, both Khmer and expat, but the nerves soon settled and the form started to show,” Eagles senior coach Nick Hattingh said of the win over Tigers.
“Up forward we had the dynamic and near unstoppable duo of Nhom Oun [five goals] and usual backman Joel Daniel Thompson playing at full-forward bagging a sensational eight goals. This was a terrific effort by Oun, one of our young Khmer players who is really starting to play some top class footy,” the coach said.
Hattingh also made mention of other notable performances by first gamer Lachie Harris, who played a number of different roles and used his heavy-tackling rugby experience to let the opposition know he was there.
Myanmar Fighting Cocks captain Andrew Romanin said he had a settled squad at the moment, and a couple of players to watch on the return to Phnom Penh would be Jhie Gough (first game for the Cocks), Justin Hadgkiss and Dusty Barter.
“We’re expecting big things from Jhie up forward as a key goalkicking option, while Dusty seems to have a pretty good eye for goal in the couple of games that he’s played for us,” Romanin said.
Myanmar will also be looking to two local players, Han Tun Aung and Min Thiha Kaung, to make an impact off the bench. It will be their first game for the club. It is also the first time the team has taken local players on tour.
The Eagles recently confirmed that one of Cambodia’s leading telecommunication companies, Cellcard, will once again be the club’s platinum sponsors. Club president Paul Hurford said he was delighted to continue the relationship with Cellcard.
