The history books don’t tell a happy tale of
Werribee Tigers teams travelling to Port Melbourne down the years in the Victorian Football League.
This Tigers’ line-up is vastly different to last year’s, and coach John Lamont at the weekend implored his players to “clean up the books” with a rare win at North Port Oval and give supporters something to smile about on their trip home from the other side of the West Gate Bridge. They answered the call with a stirring 12-point win in a cracking contest.
“Werribee people have been going to North Port Oval for 10 years supporting their team and haven’t come away with a win,” Lamont said. “We’d won there because we’d won finals at the ground, but we hadn’t actually beaten Port Melbourne in a home and away game for a long time.
“With a good four-quarter effort, the boys got the job done and hopefully a bit of confidence will emanate out of that win.”
The talk of Watton Street on Saturday night was small forward Billy Iles, who destroyed the Borough with a bag of six goals in a best-on-ground performance.
The former Western Jet fittingly kicked the sealing goal in the last quarter, his side’s only major for the term, which helped stave off a brave comeback from the Borough, who trailed by 24 points at three-quarter time and were coming home hard.
“With the way the modern game is played, bags of six aren’t that common any more in VFL footy and it’s even more rare for a small forward,” Lamont said. “As a small forward, you’ve just got to turn up at enough contests. He did that, landed some tackles, caught some blokes and won some ball himself and was in the right spot to take some marks.”
The Tigers rolled out their three-ruck strategy for the second week running with success.
Daniel Currie, Majak Daw and Dylan Reid all played important roles in the win. Daw had the most profound impact on this occasion, in the ruck and as a forward, with three goals.
“He was really dangerous,” Lamont said. “The small ground suits him because the ball gets to him quickly. He kicked three, had a couple of other shots and created spillages.”
It was a baptism of fire for James Hussey on debut. Hussey was earmarked for a close- checking role on Borough prime mover Chris Cain and rose to the challenge.
The South Warrnambool product was able to run with Cain for most of the game; perhaps it had to do with the extra fitness work he did in pre-season after sustaining a broken finger.
“He broke a finger in the first practice match and needed a little operation … but after a week or 10 days, he was able to run and bike a fair bit, so he’s in good shape,” Lamont said.
Scott Sherlock and Jesse Crichton displayed the versatility that Lamont has asked of his players. Sherlock moved from defence to add legs to the midfield and had a big impact, while Crichton was solid down back.
The Tigers will play undefeated sides Box Hill Hawks, away on Sunday, and Williamstown at home on May 17.
