By Jonty Ralphsmith
Hampton Park coach Hayden Stanton was critical of his team’s defensive running as it was unable to stop Highett when the Bulldogs got their hands on the footy.
The Redbacks were soundly beaten in clearances all day in last weekend’s elimination final , but it was the ability to ease through traffic and make them meaningful clearances which hurt most.
While Hampton Park was pounced upon at stoppage whenever a groundball was unclean, Highett was able to use the corridor and get it forward on their terms when they had first hands on it, rather than being forced wide.
“From the start of the game, you could see (Highett’s) intensity to compete on the inside and run harder on the outside took the ball away from stoppage time and time again,” Stanton said.
“Our back six held up pretty well until halftime given the avalanche of ball that was going in there, but unfortunately we need to find some mids with a defensive mindset.
“We showed today again, that when we weren’t controlling play with the ball in our hands, our inability to defend is poor.
“Our players are not very defensively minded so we’ve got to make sure we coach that well in the off-season.
“We weren’t up for the physical running day that they made it.
“We needed to bring it in tight and we didn’t and, when it got on the outside, we weren’t prepared to turn our head and cover them – that’s where we got found out.”
It’s the first final the seniors have played since winning the Division 3 premiership in 2019, with just five players from that team lining up in Sunday’s 22.
The likes of Tanner Stanton, Liam Myatt, Trent Thomas, Tristan Fernandez-Phillips and Jack Wilson have since come in and established themselves as key members of the lineup.
While some have played finals elsewhere, it was the first taste of September they have all had together, and they will be better for the run.
Another factor was the lack of continuity players such as starting midfielder Lionel Benoit have been able to get this year.
“I’m hoping what we’ll gain (from today) is the knowledge of what we need to get to when it really matters,” Stanton said.
“We’ve had some great days this year and some poor days, and today was another one of those examples where the list maturity probably wasn’t there.”
