With the inaugural Werribee Football Club Hall of Fame dinner taking place to coincide with the club’s 50th anniversary celebrations last Saturday night, it was always going to be an unforgettable weekend for those with black and gold running through their veins, irrespective of the results earlier in the day.
But the Werribee players made it an extra-special occasion with victories over the Northern Blues in the VFL seniors and AFL development league on their trip to Visy Park.
“The whole playing group attended the function,” Tigers coach John Lamont said.
“For them to all attend it as winners was really pleasing. It really added to the night.”
Also critical in the context of the season was the senior side’s 29-point win.
The Tigers returned to the top four and ended a frustrating month of inconsistent form with their 11.18 (84) to 8.7 (55) win.
The only black mark was their wayward kicking for goal. But at least they had 29 scoring shots, compared to 10 a week earlier, in a more complete performance.
“I was more pleased with our consistency compared to the previous week and other weeks,” Lamont said.
“We were a little bit inaccurate in front of goal.
‘‘We’ve kicked 11.18 and only two of them were rushed and there were a number of kickable goals that we missed.
“There was a few of them early, where we could’ve had some greater ascendancy at the stage in the game.
“I just thought generally our pressure levels were pretty good.”
The Tigers got the better of the midfield arm wrestle, with Jarred Moore, Tom Gribble, Jye Bolton and Sam Martyn prominent.
Dan Currie, in his first game back from injury, threw himself into the big-man contests in an interesting battle with Robert Warnock,
Currie’s aerial presence around the ground was vital for the Tigers.
Led by Brody Mihocek and Michael Sodamaco, the Tigers were resolute defensively, keeping the Blues to a manageable 15 scoring shots. Sodamaco tamed AFL regular Jeffrey Garlett.
In attack, Addam Maric booted four goals. But he missed out on a really big outing, converting less than 50 per cent of his nine shots.
Mason Wood snared three and was happy to provide a leading target.
The Tigers have two weeks to lap up the feel-good factor from the Hall of Fame event and the pair of wins before a huge game against Port Melbourne at Avalon Airport Oval on August 2.
Werribee Tigers Hall of Fame 2014 inductees
Eddie Marriott (legend), John Comben (legend), Kerryn O’Brien (legend), Len Ryan, Ray Smith, Bruce Montgomery, David Lyons, Dr. Greg Anderson, Alan Clayton, Kevin Leece, Ivo Havard, John Pyne, Lyn Wood, Stephen Sells, Greg Welsh, Michael McMaster, Joskun Aziz, Donald McDonald, Simon Atkins, Lynton Fitzpatrick, Michael Frost, James Podsiadly, Scott Faulkner, Shaun Smith, Travis Robertson, David Brown, Tino Ballan, John Nicol.
