On the previous SELAF weekend, the Vukovi Belgrade and the Novi Sad Dukes played two, before the season began, favored teams in the league – the Wolves and the Gladiators, and sent them back home with an added loss to their record. On Saturday, these teams will decide the winner of the South conference and who will try to make their way to the final playing North’s second placed team at home, and who will confront the Wolves in Budapest.

A loss would in that case be a bigger problem for Dukes, because their only defeat so far came against Wolves, in Budapest. However, the Vukovi also have an added motive, considering their one loss happened in Novi Sad with a close score of 21-19. Already back then, Novi Sad indicated that they would be a strong contender for the title, leading throughout the game, before the Vukovi came back in the final quarter behind Pavle Tasić’s 200 plus receiving yards that made the ending interesting.

Both teams will start new quarterbacks in comparison to that game – the Vukovi Briton Burge, who’s performance in the last game showed that moving Andrej Tasić to receiver was the right move, and Dukes will start Rastko Jokić. Jokić made his debut at quarterback and on the sam day that Burge threw for more than 300 yards, he ran for 200.

Both teams also have known problems with injuries. During the game against Wolves, the Vukovi also lost left guard Branko Mutić, who subbed at tackle for Petar Vitorović. The Belgrade team will then have a completely new left side of the offensive line, with until recently a backup, Željko Nešić, playing tackle.

„I think we had played well against the weakened Hungarian team, we have a clear idea on how we’ll go out Saturday and beat Dukes. Are they as prepared as we are, we’ll see”, said Nešić.

Dukes have in the game against the Gladiators shown almost astounding scoring ability considering how many starters on offense they missed. This time, they’ll be without to defensive players as well, linebacker/kicker Vladislav Petković and safety Miloš Nikšić.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult to set our own rhythm against the Vukovi, because with American coaches they made a lot of progress, as demonstrated with their win over the Wolves from Budapest the previous weekend. Despite all, we have only one thing in mind, and that’s the win”, said Dukes running back Kosta Stojaković.

The game on Ada Ciganlija in Belgrade starts at 5 PM.