North v South
as codes come together

This weekend north versus south as Melbourne Storm and the Essendon Bombers take on their respective opponents from north of the border.

Saturday will see the Storm take on the Brisbane Broncos at Olympic Park (3pm) and Essendon meets the Brisbane Lions at Colonial Stadium (7.10pm).

Hundreds of fans are expected to make the trek from Olympic Park to Colonial Stadium in what will be a double dose of north versus south football across two codes.

The Storm and the Bombers are desperate to secure a finals birth and a win is essential over their highly fancied opponents. The Storm is sitting in ninth place on the NRL ladder with the Broncos comfortably in second position. Similarly the Bombers are in seventh position on the AFL ladder and the Lions are flying high in first place.

As the codes come together players from all four teams will be assembled for a one-off media opportunity at Olympic Park tomorrow (Friday) at 12pm (Storm training & BBQ beforehand from 10.30asm):

Melbourne Storm - Rodney Howe (captain) & Scott Hill (Aust. Test representative)

Essendon Bombers - Adam Ramanauskas (Essendon Premiership player)

Brisbane Broncos - Gorden Tallis (captain and Aust. Test representative)

Brisbane Lions - Des Headland (AFL young gun)

? The Storm hold a 4-1-3 record over the Broncos who have never beaten the Storm in Melbourne ? Scott Hill and Gorden Tallis played for the Australian Test side together in the recent 64-10 victory over Great Britain & will be on Stan Zemanek's drive show Friday @ 3.40pm ? The Bombers/Lions game will be a re-match from last year's AFL grand final ? All players will be available for comment after 12.15pm