The Standard | OLD Collegians’ best win of the Warrnambool and District league season could prove its worth in months to come, coach Daryl Beechey says.
The Warriors bounced back from an Anzac Day defeat to Kolora-Noorat to upstage Dennington 16.7 (103) to 10.18 (78) at Dennington Recreation Reserve.
They trailed by 19 points at the long break but kicked 10 goals to two in the second half, with senior players Josh Dwyer and Nathan Forth leading the way.
Beechey said the win “makes up for the one we lost last week”. The Warriors were in command early against the Power seven days earlier but fell away badly.
“We were pretty disappointed. We felt we should’ve won but we were outplayed, so it was good to turn it around,” he said.
“You’re not just going to be able to beat the bottom sides and get through (to finals) this year.
“You look at Kolora-Noorat and Nirranda, they’re really knocking on the door a lot more than they were last year.
“All of a sudden it throws a couple more teams into the mix going off last year’s top five.”
Beechey said the Warriors weren’t panicking at half-time, despite having nine scoring shots to the Dogs’ 18.
“It didn’t feel like we were out of it, there was still a pretty good feeling among the boys.”
He believed their superior run — a non-negotiable attribute given their comparative lack of size — was the difference in the second half.
“I mentioned that to the boys during the week, if we kept running and used our link-up, and our skill matched how hard we ran, we’d prevail in the end,” he said.
“Our kicking around the ground was the best it’s been up to date, that was good, that was a positive.
“We did have a slower start but it’s probably the closest we’ve come to a four-quarter performance this season.”
The performances of their senior players — Forth, Dwyer, captain Paul Campbell and Colby Rix among them — also drew praise.
Aaron Williams helped curb the influence of Dogs coach Darcy Lewis while Chris Chambers kicked four goals, including the sealer in the last term.
Vinnie Fogarty was the other Warrior to stand tall. He conceded size to Josh Lock and Justin Wallace but worked hard around the ground.
“He’s someone who is still a work in progress. He’s ticking all the boxes in way of improvement and doing what we’ve asked,” he said.
Lewis slammed the Dogs’ performance as being deficient “in a lot of areas”. He said “12 to 15 players had an off day”, including himself.
Chris Keilar kicked three goals while centre half-back Luke Duncan, Shane Graham and Leigh Evans were their best.
“The goalkicking was a telling factor at the end of the day, but that summed it up,” he said.
“Our disposal, our skill level was poor, which is really disappointing...our skills were good last week, you don’t lose your skill level overnight.
“We might have not been switched on or not focused, a bit blasé about the whole day, I’m not sure.
“Beech summed it up last week, they failed to put together four quarters of footy and we failed to put together a full quarter of footy.”
Elsewhere, Jet Dowie booted 10 goals to lead Merrivale a 245-point belting of Deakin University, 37.30 (252) to 1.1 (7) at Merrivale Recreation Reserve.
Claye Cassidy and Rhys Raymond kicked four each while onballer James Kelly was best afield.
And South Rovers rose to fifth on the ladder with a 20.16 (136) to 4.7 (31) win against Russells Creek at Walter Oval.
Mark Murphy and Reece Cracknell were the Lions’ key figures up forward, booting five goals each while Jake Bacon was prolific throughout.
