WERRIBEE will play finals for the third consecutive year after
demolishing finals hopefuls Northern Blues by 48 points in the VFL on
Sunday.
The Tigers went into the game needing a win to secure a finals
berth, with Port Melbourne, the Blues, North Ballarat, Collingwood and
Essendon snapping at their heels.
And an explosive third term, in which the Tigers slammed home
eight goals while restricting the Blues to two behinds, showed why
Werribee remains one of the competition’s most dangerous teams.
Leading by 23 points at half-time after an impressive but
inaccurate first half, Werribee thoroughly controlled the third quarter.
Jarred Moore was excellent through the middle of the ground, going
inside 50 on several occasions. He had 10 touches for the quarter and
24 for the match. He and his fellow midfielders were the beneficiaries
of a terrific performance from ruckman Daniel Currie, who had a big job
with Majak Daw booked in for season-ending surgery by North Melbourne
during the week.
There was a plethora of options up forward for the Tigers, with
skipper Robbie Castello playing the opportunist, Ben Brown snagging a
couple and plenty of others having a hand as the Tigers built an
unassailable lead.
The few times the ball went into the Blues’ forward half it was
swiftly repelled, with Sam Wormald, Michael Firrito and Scott McMahon
taking control and many others getting back to help – even Brown took a mark on the last line to stop the Blues from scoring.
At three-quarter time coach Scott West urged his players to be
ruthless, but for the first half of the final term it seemed his words
had fallen on deaf ears. The Blues moved the ball at pace with the aid
of the breeze and a Tigers defence that had been in control all
afternoon suddenly seemed stretched – Werribee dropped numbers back.
The Blues kicked seven goals for the quarter but Werribee was able to wrest back the momentum with three goals of its own.
Of securing a finals place, West said, “It’s relieving, to be
honest, because it was really tight between third and ninth. We can go
into next week and play with real flair and confidence but we have to
make sure our week-to-week preparation is good so we can carry our form
into finals.”
