This year, former Supercats Team Manager, Trevor Price, will be writing for the Geelong News each week with an inciteful preview of the round ahead.

Read on for a preview of this weekend's crucial road games in Canberra from this week's edition of the Geelong News.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats will travel to the nation’s capital this weekend to take on the young Australian Institute of Sport squad on Friday night before tackling the Canberra Gunners on Saturday.

The AIS have just the one victory from their three outings so far this season, however the team is returning after a bronze medal performance at an international under 19 tournament in Germany and will be buoyed by that experience. Coach Marty Clarke will be relying upon his second year players including giant Shane Harris-Tunks to get his squad of 16 to 19 year olds over the line. 17 year old Victorian Matthew Dellavedova will also be one to watch.

On Saturday the Supercats will tackle their vanquished opponents from the last 2 SEABL Conference Championships in the Canberra Gunners. In what is quickly becoming a bitter rivalry, the Gunners are this year without Anthony Petrie who has moved to NBL team West Sydney and veteran Paul Denman who has retired. Wiley coach Frank Arsego always studies Geelong’s form and will certainly have a plan up his sleeve to try and win this one. The Gunners have a three win, three loss record so far this season but have won both of their home matches to date so cannot be taken lightly by the Supercats.

The Supercats form has been a bit of a roller coaster ride so far this season with both imports starting late and the drama surrounding Nathan Herbert’s restriction status. This was clearly evident last weekend as the Supercats had a woeful game against Ballarat capitulating by loosing the final quarter 37 to 17 and then came out the following night in Albury and had an absolute blinder against the Bandits scoring 150 points and demolishing the opposition by 45.

Geelong head coach Mark Leader will be keen to reinforce what worked well in the latter game and attempt to capture that form for the remainder of the season. On Saturday, Shawn Myers game suddenly clicked into place as he finally looked comfortable in the forward spot and worked with, instead of against, Daniel George in the centre to record a welcome 26 points. It was noticeable that Geelong passed the ball around in offence a lot more on Saturday, which allowed them to choose higher percentage shots. Leader will also be keen for this to continue.

With Nick Owusu set to return this weekend after a groin strain kept him out of both fixtures last weekend, Leader will have another guard option available to him. This will be a welcome option as Jamie Medved is unlikely to make the trip having suffered muscle damage to his shoulder in the Bandits game last weekend.

The Supercats return to the Arena at 7:30 pm on April 11 for the return game against the Ballarat.