By Marcus Uhe
Noble Park’s first loss of the season will serve as a “reality check” according to senior coach Steve Hughes.
An undefeated start to the season has not come without its difficulties, having been pushed by South Croydon last week and needing to come from behind to steamroll Rowville in round one.
Consider, too, the loss of Kyle Martin in preseason, and there’s a bit of realignment taking place for the reigning premiers of the Eastern Football Netball League as they battle lapses in consistency.
“You’re effectively taking away 40 possessions, 18 weeks out of 18, a whole heap of clearances and tackles, there’s absolutely an adjustment period to that,” Hughes said of missing their champion leader.
“We didn’t go into that game thinking we were playing well.
“To be honest, our practice match form was stronger than what our in-season form has been so far, and we feel a little bit lucky with a couple of the wins that we’ve had.
“This group that I coach have got their feet on the ground, no one’s getting ahead of themselves or anything like that.
“To be honest, I kind of saw Saturday coming, because there’s that level of inconsistency.
“I think that’s a positive; we see an opportunity in that we’re 3-1 and we feel like there’s enormous improvement in the way we play ahead of us.”
Of particular concern were the lapses in concentration that led to goals, both late in the second quarter when they conceded three in time-on.
While acknowledging that the Lions will be one of the stronger outfits in 2023, it’s going to make for an uncomfortable night at training when they watch the tape, but he’s hoping to use it as a learning tool, and that they’ll benefit in the long run, starting with this week against Norwood.
“We’ll go through it in our review tomorrow night and that gets put in their faces, that vision,” Hughes explained.
“It’s not common for us to do that, it’s a bit out of the box.
“I saw it yesterday when I was doing the review and it was pretty ordinary.
“We’ll show the boys that and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.
“We’re watching a ton of vision every week and breaking it down.
“We’ll get better, but it’s just about how quickly we can fast-track it.
“We’ve demonstrated that when we play good footy we’re a pretty tough side to beat.
“We’ve just got to put it together for four quarters.”
