Border Mail |
WANGARATTA coach Mark Knobel has fired a barb at Lavington, slamming the Panthers’ treatment of Ben Davies.
In a match that was far from inspiring, most of the post-match attention has centred around incidents that had nothing to do with kicking a football.
While the first-year Pies coach remained tight-lipped about the racial comment directed at star forward James Wong during the third quarter, Knobel was more than happy to vent his disapproval at Lavington’s off-ball work on the Pies’ star ball-winner.
“I was disappointed by a couple of things that happened during the game,” Knobel said.
“There was an incident off the ball that I wasn’t very happy about.
“You can play the game as hard and as tough as you like, but make sure the person is involved in the play.”
Davies and big man Trent Rutherford were constantly pestered by a host of Panthers, with Luke Brauer leading the charge
The match saw Lavington always holding control and Wangaratta seemingly happy enough to let that be the case.
The Pies led early but surrendered that advantage well before quarter-time and never regained that position.
Brant Dickson was instrumental in the ruck, with veteran midfielders Matt Pendergast and Kade Stevens especially productive in the first half of the game.
Luke Garland was a constant threat up forward, while Myles Aalbers, Jay Banks and Mitch Palmer all proved dangerous around the stoppages.
Lavington coach James Saker, who restricted Wong to just one goal for the game, said the scrappy nature of the game was a probable by-product of the Panthers’ famed press.
“I think we weren’t able to differentiate between when we had the footy, to be calm and clear with our decisions, and to be manic with our pressure when they did,” he said.
“That was the fine line we didn’t get right.
“But if I was to take one of the two, it’d be the pressure.
“We want to make sure that’s always there.”
In a performance that reminded plenty of when Wangaratta Rovers came to Lavington Sportsground, the Hawks’ arch-rival continually fiddled and fumbled with the football inside the Panthers’ attacking half of the ground.
“We didn’t really follow our style of play that we wanted to play and it played right into the press’ hands,” Knobel said.
“We went away from instructions and it gobbled us up.
“There were some good passages of play where we did what we wanted to do and were able to score quite easily at times.
“But it was a disappointing day, all around.”
