By Tara Murray
An inconsistent Baseball Victoria summer league premier 1st nine season has come to an end for the Werribee Giants.
The Giants first season back in the top flight had some good moments, but they couldn’t put it together frequently enough.
They finished second bottom with six wins.
Giants co-coach Andrew Christou said it was a good learning experience for the side this season.
“We had some really competitive games against some of the higher teams at times,” he said. “We were uncompetitive at other times.
“It was a good season for the younger guys playing at this level for the first time and the older guys to get back into the higher level.
“Our inconsistency let us down a the higher level.”
Christou said one of the biggest challenges was learning to play more matches, more frequently.
In the past few seasons, the Giants have played once a week where in the top flight there is also many mid-week games.
“It’s about doing it week in, week out for 30 games,” he said. “We normally played 22-23 games, so it was an extra seven games.
“We be able to turn up on Tuesday nights and Saturdays every week and be competitive each week.
“It certainly tested the coaching staff.”
Christou said it had been a really good opportunity for the younger players to play in the top competition in the state.
He said they would only be better for it.
“Even the ones in the reserves, it was a good thing,” he said. “They got opportunities and they gained experience.”
The Giants finished their season with a mid-week loss to Malvern 15-2 and a Saturday loss to Williamstown Wolves, 5-3.
Christou said they were hoping that they had done enough to stay in the top flight next season, but was unsure with the competition structure regularly changing.
He said they would only benefit from being in that division again.
“We would be able to get some consistency over year to year,” he said. “The best clubs do it.
“We’re just trying to get consistency in the league, week in week out and year in, year out.”
Christou said overall it had been a good season for the club with six senior men’s sides and a senior women’s team.
“There’s a lot of people hanging around for multiple seasons,” he said. “We’ve got a good community which is nice.”
