The Standard | REIGNING premier Koroit needs to improve despite winning four of its first five matches, coach Adam Dowie says.
Dowie was far from satisfied with the Saints’ 34-point win against South Warrnambool on Saturday.
“We need to keep improving,” Dowie said after the 14.14 (98) to 9.10 (64) result at Friendly Societies’ Park.
“It’s hard to be critical (with the result) but you have to have high expectations.
“Our skill level at times was really ordinary, poor decision-making and poor execution. Probably in the second and third quarters it was coming out of the forward line too easily.”
Dowie credited South Warrnambool’s intense pressure for restricting his side after the Saints made a fast start.
He had urged his players to get on top early to limit the hype South Warrnambool had created before the game in celebrating the achievements of its 29 AFL and VFL graduates.
“We knew they were going to come out fired up with the occasion of the day, their ex-AFL/VFL guys presented them with their jumpers before the game,” Dowie said.
“We jumped them, were 5.0 to 0.2 up at one stage.”
But Dowie was impressed with the young Roosters line -up.
“I thought South was terrific,” he said.
“They have such a young side, they were really competitive. Full credit to them — they would have given themselves a chance at half-time.”
Dowie said the Saints were pleased to have a 4-1 win/loss record having battled with a long injury list. He hopes midfielder Simon O’Keefe, running player James North, key forward Sam Dobson and veteran Joe McLaren (elbow) will be close to returning for their round six game against Cobden.
South Warrnambool coach Nigel Kol took plenty of positives out of his side’s performance against the defending premier.
He said the Roosters’ young players had produced their first four-quarter effort of the season.
“We won the last quarter which was really pleasing,” he said.
“We are just taking the small steps and we will continue to build as we go.
“I was relatively pleased, it was nice to finish a game. A little bit of inaccuracy in front of goal hurt us, we just need to take those chances.
“It’s a young group. To play against one of the top sides and to be beaten by five goals, I can take a bit out of that.”
Inspirational captain Nick Thompson gave the Roosters’ midfield added depth, playing his first game of the season after an elbow injury. It was his 100th senior game with the club.
