Werribee’s premiership defence in the Victorian Football League is officially over with the side starting to start looking to the future.
Werribee needed everything to go its way in the final four rounds to have any hope of finishing in the top 10 came season end.
But that all came crashing down in the first of those matches with a disappointing performance against Richmond on Saturday at Melbourne Avalon Airport Oval.
A 41-7 first quarter blew the game open in favour of Richmond.
While Werribee stayed in touch the next two quarters, Richmond lifted to another level to come away with a 15.9 (99)-7.11 (53) win.
Werribee coach Jimmy Allan said it wasn’t the performance they had been hoping for.
“It was a very ordinary performance,” he said. “We were completely outplayed.
“We had a little patch in the third quarter where we got our game going, but it was pretty comprehensive from Richmond.”
Allan said early they fumbled the ball and made fundamental errors, with it leading to repeat inside 50s for Richmond.
He said it felt like Richmond was scoring every time they went in there early on.
“Where we were turning it over made it hard to defend,” he said. “We were able to hang in during the second quarter and third quarter was easily our best.
“They got an easy turnover and goal early in the last quarter and it broke our spirit. It was a procession from there.”
Allan said their inconsistency in games had really hurt them across the whole season.
He said while they have a young group, they need to be better.
“Our effort has been there for the most part,” he said. “I couldn’t say that it was fantastic for the entirety of the game on the weekend.
“We lean on the fact that we have a young side, but senior players are making an errors as well.
“It’s right across the board and we’ll look to rectify that in the last few weeks.”
Hudson Garoni kicked four goals for Werribee despite close attention from Richmond’s defence.
Allan said Garoni was often competing one on three in contests but was still one of their best.
Jack Riding had plenty of the ball with 35 possessions, while Louis Pinnuck had 30 touches.
Allan said Mace Cousins and Foster Gardiner both had good games in defence, while Sam Conway battled away in the ruck.
Conway kicked just his second goal at this level and his first since round 12 in 2022 in the loss.
Werribee sits in 15th spot with three rounds remaining, three games outside of the top 10.
With a bye this week, it means the club’s finals hopes are officially done.
Allan said he wasn’t aware that they still had a slim finals chance until midway through last week, but knew everything would have had to go their way.
He said the season they’d had has been reflected in where they sit on the ladder.
“We haven’t played well enough for long enough,” he said. “We don’t deserve to play finals.
“We’ll now find out who is up to the level and who is not in the next couple of weeks.”
Allan said they were still working out what the bye week would look like, with the group likely to only train on Tuesday.
There would likely be a number of players play local football this weekend as long as they are cleared by the medical staff.
