Border Mail |
MATT Grossman, Ben Davies and Daine Porter were perhaps the three best players on the ground, James Wong had 10 shots at goal and Wangaratta dominated most of the second half.
Sam Caruso sat out the final two quarters with a quad strain, too, leaving Wangaratta Rovers a valuable rotation down on the bench.
Sounds pretty good for the Pies, right?
Despite those positives, a wasteful Wangaratta was unable to stun the Hawks in a nail-biting derby yesterday.
Hawks’ coach Mick Caruso was the first to admit his side was lucky to emerge with four premiership points but, as they say, a win is a win.
A telling one, too, with Wangaratta Rovers now two wins clear of their most bitter foe.
“I thought they outplayed us,” Caruso said.
“They out-tackled us and did a lot of things better than us on the day.
“Thank goodness they missed a few opportunities in front of goal because otherwise we could have been looking up at the scoreboard staring at a two or three goal loss.
“Credit to our boys, they chipped away.
“They worked hard and we got the four points.
“We go two games clear of them which is where we wanted to go.”
While both teams kicked 13 behinds for the game, Wangaratta was undoubtedly the more inefficient team in front of goal.
The Pies kicked seven points in the final quarter, with livewire forward James Wong uncharacteristically spurning a host of guilt-edged chances as Wangaratta surged towards what seemed an unlikely victory.
It was an all-too-familiar tale for the Pies.
Close, but not close enough.
“I thought we controlled the second half but didn’t finish our work, as per usual,” coach Mark Knobel said.
“At one stage, when we finish off our work, we will get the result we deserve.”
They almost did, thanks largely to Matt Grossman.
Grossman’s pace, smarts and skills were there for all to see with yet another dynamic display, while Davies and Daine Porter continually got involved through the midfield at critical stages.
Jamie Sheahan typified the Hawks’ victory — with a lot of grunt work — while Sean O’Keeffe also stood tall when it counted.
Cam Bishop looks a talent — his three goals the most of any Hawk — while skipper Tyson Hartwig had the better of Josh Porter.
Caruso’s decision to play the competition’s premier defender on Porter, rather than Wong, shows just how meteoric Porter’s rise has been this year.
And while Wong could have won the game opposed to Hayden Lowe, Hartwig’s match-up proved the right one.
Caruso admitted the Hawks had become complacent with winning ugly and urged his players to re-kindle their killer instinct.
