Wimmera-Mail Times | WARRACK Eagles coach Dan Krahe said his team had a lot to be proud of despite yet another loss to add to their winless season.
The Eagles faced a tough challenge against ladder leaders Horsham Saints on Saturday.
The Eagles fought hard, keeping the margin to just seven points at the first change, but ultimately were smashed by the Saints.
The final score was 16.16 (112) to 5.2 (32).
Krahe said the Eagles were able to put up a contest against the Saints during the match.
“We didn’t allow them to have many easy scoring shots – we denied their game style a fair bit,” he said.
“We didn’t get the points on the board but everyone really stood up. It was more of a team effort and everyone played their part.”
Krahe said the team used the game as a learning curve.
“Coming in we didn’t think we were going to win, we just wanted to work on a few things,” he said.
“We’ve always played a good quarter here and there but we were focusing on a four-quarter effort.”
Krahe named Jae McGrath as a standout on the day.
“Jae was quite impressive. He took a lot of marks coming out of the backline,” he said. “Without him they could have turned over a lot more a lot more easily.”
Horsham Saints coach Shayne Breuer said the Eagles posed a tougher opponent from the team’s last clash in round four.
“They were a lot stronger than when we played them the first time,” he said.
“They were fairly competitive.”
Breuer said the weather also presented problems for both sides. “It was a fairly windy day so it was hard to get any clean passages of play,” he said.
Breuer praised Josh Carol who played his first senior game for the season and James Wills who played his second.
“The guys who do come up play their role and play good footy,” he said.
“It’s good to know there are guys who can come in and have an influence.”
Breuer said with just three rounds to go, it was time to think past round 16.
“It’s that time when you can focus on finals, thinking about who you might come up against,” he said.
“We’ll be doing that for sure.”