Geelong Advertiser |
NORTH Shore coach Peter Riccardi said Saturday's 119-point hiding at the hands of Geelong West-St Peter's was "dead-set embarrassing".
The former Geelong champion didn't hold back after the loss, North Shore's seventh consecutive 100 plus-point defeat this year.
The loss was set up after a disastrous first quarter, in which the Roosters kicked 12 goals to two to blow apart the contest.
"There was no organisation on the field," Riccardi said.
"We just got lost, our defenders gave their opponents a 20m leg rope of bungee cord and we couldn't win the ball in the middle. It's not until quarter-time where you give them a spray and they kind of respond.
"It was just dead-set embarrassing and I said to them, 'one day the penny is going to drop'. I'm sick and tired of going through the opposition, putting stuff out on the board and them just doing their own thing."
After being swept off the park in the opening term, the Seagulls limited their opponents to two scoring shots in the second after wingman Timothy Evermee registered the opening goal, before continuing to play with a limp.
"They can play footy, it's just between the ears," Riccardi said of his players.
"We give them a plan to go out but as soon as they cross that white line they just do their own thing and that's just not good enough.
"I would have said there were five or six players who could hold their hand up and say that they had a crack today; however, you're not going to win with five or six blokes.
"George Gavalas, our fullback, shut down (Luke Vogels) for a majority of the match. Dylan Watt also limited Kevin Bourke's influence. Our younger guys Zac Mawson and Nathan King put their heads above the ball through the middle and Brad Surkitt continues to do that all the time."
But Riccardi remained critical post-match, as his side's losing streak was extended to 11 matches.
"When five or six blokes come to play and the rest don't, well you're just going to get a score like that and it doesn't matter where you play. I could have put our under-14s out there and they could have played better than them today," he said.
The Seagulls play Leopold next week in the clash of the bottom two.
Roosters deliver dozen in hot opening - Alex Tigani
AFTER a disappointing loss to Leopold last week, Geelong West-St Peter's redeemed itself with a crushing win over bottom side North Shore at Windsor Oval on Saturday.
The Roosters came out of the blocks firing, scoring 12 goals in an opening-quarter blitz to get their season back on track with a 25.8 (158) to 5.9 (39) victory.
"Out here it is certainly hard to play, and we came off a loss last week to Leopold which we certainly thought we could have won but unfortunately we didn't," Roosters coach Terry Bright said after the match at Windsor Park.
"Today it was important to redeem ourselves and get back on the winning list. We won the toss, kicked with the wind and got off to a really good start which probably flattened North Shore a bit.
"We have a very young midfield, with 19-year-olds in Tom Gribble and Patrick Eastman who are going to be fantastic GFL players. They're still young, and at times the bigger bodies get them, but I'm pretty happy about the way they're going, as well as our other midfielders such as James Hussey and Chris Moreland."
Former Sydney Swan and first-year recruit Luke Vogels was one of seven multiple goal-kickers for the Roosters, only a week after returning from the police academy.
"We believe that when we have our best side on the park we are competitive," Bright said with an eye on next week's crunch game against St Albans.
"We also hope to have Lucas Boyd, another of our key forwards, back by next week, so all of a sudden we have some people who can kick a winning score, which we haven't been able to do against some of the good sides this year."
Gribble is expected to return to Geelong's VFL side, opening up an opportunity for a midfielder from the Roosters' reserves.
