Hoppers Crossing is down, but not out, in Bowls Victoria’s division 2.
Relegation is staring Hoppers in the face but there’s hope for the Pannam Drive club.
Hoppers player Daryl Marendaz said the team was not “that far away”, but the results were yet to come.
“They’ve been trying hard but not getting the end result,” he said.
It’s been a dismal season for Hoppers’ top team, which was 26 points adrift of the second-last team before last weekend.
The side sank deeper into the mire with an 83-71 loss to Richmond Union on Saturday.
A host of key departures at the end of last season has had Hoppers struggling this campaign.
The team won on the opening day of the season, but that was a false dawn for a side that struggled in the same division last season. It went through the next 10 games without picking up a win.
“As far as I’m concerned, this game is 70 per cent ability and 30 per cent confidence,” Marendaz said.
In the first game back after the mid-season break, Hoppers caused a major boilover by beating Port Melbourne away. It was a result that gave Hoppers’ confidence a boost and gives it a fighting chance – albeit tiny – of avoiding relegation.
Even if the Hoppers players ultimately can’t save their season, they will refuse to go away quietly.
The aim will be to play the role of finals shaper in the remaining five rounds.
“If you don’t think you can beat your opposition, you might as well stay home,” Marendaz said. “You go there expecting to win pretty well every game you play.
“Any team can beat any other team on the day and top teams have bad days as well.”
Hoppers faces Keilor, which sits two spots above it on the ladder, in a winnable game on the road on Saturday.
