Tara Murray
Werribee returned to the winners list in the Victorian Football League with its best performance of the season so far.
Coming off two straight losses, the Tigers were hoping to get back on the winners list against Carlton on Saturday.
Werribee got off to a strong start and was able to build on that throughout the match on the way to a 14.10 (94)-9.8 (62) win.
Tigers coach Jimmy Allen was pretty happy with not only the result, but how they played.
“The boys played really well,” he said. “We got our hands first on the ball easily and our mids controlled the contest.
“We did a fair bit of work getting the ball inside 50 and ball movement and finding more opportunities for our forwards.”
Having had a full week on the track after a short turnaround into playing Anzac Day, Allen said they were able to fine tune some things.
He said while they had been playing some good football there had been some things that had been holding them back.
“We weren’t scoring as much as we would have liked,” he said. “We’d played four and half good games, only one bad half against Williamstown.
“We were able to make the most of our opportunities on the weekend.”
Allen said they started well and were able to get some reward for effort and then they were able to build from there.
Angus Hicks and Jay Dahlhaus kicked three goals each for the Tigers, while Flynn Young kicked two.
Jack Riding led the way with 34 disposals while Dom Brew had 33.
Allen said there were winners all across the ground.
“Jack Riding was sensational at half forward and on the wing,” he said. “He’s had a really good three weeks for us.
“Kye Declase on a wing was good and Kobe Annand returned to the side and made a big difference in the ruck.
“The midfield group was really strong and the defenders worked well too. The forward group went really well, it was our best performance of the year.
“There were plenty of positives to come out of the win.”
Among the positives were the debuts of Jake Smith and Charlie Byrne,
Smith was thrown in the middle of the ground and had 13 disposals while Byrne had some really good moments down back.
The win moves Werribee to sixth on the ladder, four points behind the top two sides, Footscray Bulldogs and Williamstown.
They have a bye this week.
Allen said he would just rather keep playing.
“I hate them,” he said of the bye. “I would rather keep going.
“It would have been worse had we lost had we had three losses in a row. Whether it comes at a good time, time will tell.
“We’ll look to freshen up a bit.”
After the bye, Werribee is set to have a few players return from injury.
He said Nick Hayes will be ready, while skipper Nick Coughlan will probably be a week later.
With the performance on the weekend, Allen said the match committee will have a difficult time selecting the side with everyone doing their job and putting their hands up to keep their spots.
The Tigers next match is on May 18 against Collingwood at Victoria Park.
Allen said there would be a bit of an unknown heading into the match with Collingwood set to get some AFL players back which would filter into the reserves side.
