By Tyler Lewis
Despite holding off a finals front-runner, Rowville coach Ben Wise is confident his side has plenty to improve on.
The Hawks led South Croydon at every change on Saturday in the eventual 11.16 (82) to 10.7 (67) victory, but it didn’t come without a late scare
The Dogs kicked six of the last eight goals to trim a late third-term lead of 36 to get within two kicks at one stage in the final quarter.
The South Croydon comeback left Wise dissatisfied with his group’s ability to finish off their own work.
“I think we fed their momentum a bit, which was disappointing,” he said.
“We did a couple of long switches that ended up in turnovers in some pretty dangerous areas.
“It gave them a chance to defend it and open us up the other way, we went away from what we want to do with our ball movement, which is a bit annoying.
“They’re a quality side that can score really quickly, but when we went forward, we didn’t take our opportunities.
“We just fed their comeback, we should’ve had the game iced at three-quarter time, should’ve been 10 goals up really.
“I said to the group it’s great that we play a certain brand and get enough looks for our forwards, but if we’re not going to execute and put the scoreboard pressure on, it’s going to hurt us.
“It might hurt you in a final if you don’t kick accurately, we have to make sure we tidy that up.”
Elaborating on the only period in which his side lost, Wise wished his Hawks had have dropped the anchor sooner.
“I reckon our pressure for three and a half quarters was elite,” he said.
“We kept it in our half and third for long periods of time, we got plenty of looks, when you don’t execute and finish your work, all the hard work can go away quickly.
“15 points probably flattered them, we should’ve won by six or seven goals.
“Late in the fourth, they come and get within a kick I think, and we get one back and steady the ship a bit.
“We went into slow play, we should’ve done that a bit earlier and been a bit smarter… it was a good game of footy, they’re a good side.”
Leading from the front with 28 disposals and 10 clearances was Hawks skipper Anthony Brolic.
Within Brolic’s nature is to get his teammates involved, frequently following up with efforts that don’t count on the stat sheet.
And while those particular efforts are all appreciated by his coach, Wise has urged his star to be more avaricious at times.
“We know how good he is, over the last month I have probably put the acid on him a little bit to be a bit selfish and impact games the way we know he can,” he said.
“He’s taken over the captaincy this year and had a team orientated set up, he’s happy to let the other guys show their talents.
“He’s probably taken a backwards step, but I have told him to rearrange and find a better balance for him to impact the way he knows he can.
“The last month he has been huge, I think he’s averaged 30 possessions… if he’s getting 30 touches, he’s cutting you up because he’s just so impactful.”
After a disappointing outing the week before, Berwick coach Clint Evans wanted a response from his Wickers.
He wasn’t expecting his young side to go out and beat Doncaster by 12 goals, but more show a bit of intent with how they used the footy.
And though they suffered an 11.7 (83) to 7.8 (50) defeat at the hands of the Sharks at Schramms Reserve, the Wickers did as their coached asked.
“The movement of the football between the arcs,” Evans explained as his area of focus this week.
“We wanted to take a bit more territory, whereas last week we were really stagnant… handball, kick, handball, kick.
“We wanted that, and they were a lot better at it this week, this week it was more our efficiency kicking inside our forward 50.
“It was really bad and that’s what we spoke about, it’s a bit of a care factor for your teammate, either by foot or by hand.”
In the last outing between Doncaster and Berwick, both units were without a win and the loss for Berwick resulted in Evans being ‘the flattest he has ever been after a game’.
With improvement coming in spades from both sides since, the Wickers head coach believes the difference between the sides this outing was the size of the average player.
“It was men versus boys, to be honest,” he said.
“They had (Jake) Spencer, (Mark) Jamar… our big full-back Jayden Graham who we tried at full-forward was fantastic in the first 15 minutes… and then he broke his ankle.
“We just have to keep on trying, playing the kids, that’s all we can do, we know we are going to be up against it and not get a heap back.
“We are 10 points in front of North Ringwood (in relegation territory), so we need to try and snatch one on the way home and be competitive.”
With Balwyn (third), Noble Park (second) and South Croydon (fifth) in the next three matches, Evans is under no illusions that it’s going to be a difficult run.
With the lack of expectation, Evans will tell his boys to take the game on, albeit a different way as injuries have hamstrung key posts.
“The same I think, take it on,” he said of his message over the next three weeks.
“As I said, we know how we’re going, we know what’s good and what’s bad, and we know we’re going to see both sides of it.
“There’s bursts in games where we can look really good and then there’s a five or 10-minute period where sides will get a hold of us.
“It’s all a learning curve, we want to try and take the game on more, but it’s also the soldiers we’ve got.
“We’ve been decimated, we’ve got no height – on the weekend, their coach said ‘kick it into the forward line like it’s a nine iron’ because they had Jamar down there.
“We have no height around the ground, so there’s different ways we want to play and a lot of it has to be ugly because we don’t have the guys up forward that can take a big grab.”
Noble Park – courtesy of virtuoso performance from Jackson Sketcher – has dashed to eight points clear in second position on the EFNL ladder.
The Bulls got into an uncharacteristic shootout with Park Orchards but packed more than enough arsenal to come away with a 32-point win.
Sketcher was at his explosive best with 31 disposals (21 kicks, 10 handballs), 10 clearances, 10 inside 50s and three goals in the Bulls 19.14 (128) to 15.6 (98) triumph.
Sketcher was assisted by five goals from creative forward Shayne Allan and 37 possessions from neat wingman Lachie McDonnell.
In a demonstration of its versatility, the typically penny-pinching Noble Park unit reached triple-figures before the final change for the third time this season.
With fifth-placed South Croydon hosting Park Orchards (seventh) – which is already six points adrift of six seed Blackburn – this week, the final six could be all but settled by Saturday evening.
LADDER
Rowville 44, Noble Park 40, Doncaster East 32, Balwyn 32, South Croydon 28, Blackburn 26, Park Orchards 20, Norwood 20, Vermont 20, Doncaster 16, Berwick 10, North Ringwood 0.
FIXTURE
South Croydon v Park Orchards, Berwick v Balwyn, Noble Park v Norwood, North Ringwood v Blackburn, Rowville v Doncaster East, Vermont v Doncaster.
