By ROY WARD
DOVETON Eagles coach Paul Davis has called on his side to play smarter football following its major semi-final loss to Moorabbin at Ben Kavanagh Reserve, Mordialloc on Saturday.
The win secured Moorabbin the early spot in the Southern Football League division 3 grand final on September 22 while the Eagles will play either Sandown or Ashwood in the preliminary final this Saturday.
Davis said the Eagles stormed into the lead early in the final term after kicking the first three goals of the quarter to take an 11-point lead.
But three undisciplined acts from Eagles players resulted in three 50-metre penalties which led to three Kangaroos goals as they ran out eight-point winners.
“We had all the run and looked like we would go on with it,” Davis said. “Then they got three goals from 50-metre penalties. Two were for backchatting and one for overstepping the mark.
“Despite things like that we were still right in the game. We kicked a point instead of a goal late on which would have cut the margin to a couple of points.”
The Eagles hoped their running midfielders would excel on the bigger confines of Ben Kavanagh Reserve and while the Eagles’ internal statistics showed they created 10 more inside-50s than the Kangaroos, Davis said his players had wasted too many scoring opportunities for bombing long into forward line.
“We just didn’t take our opportunities, we had plenty of the ball,” Davis said. “We played into their hands a bit by bombing it long when they had a couple of big blokes back in our forward line.”
The loss means the Eagles have lost all three clashes with the Kangaroos this season but all by short margins. If they can win the preliminary final, Davis is confident his side can finally beat their new nemesis.
He also said the Eagles had no injuries and had welcomed back important players Corrie Wilson and Dale Kilpatrick from injury on Saturday with both performing well.
“This match was the one we should have won,” he said. “If we can really run the ball and use it well this Saturday then we should be in a much better position.”
Check out Greater Dandenong Latest Sport Results on this website for final scores from the elimination final between Sandown and Ashwood which was played yesterday.
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