HOPPERS Crossing’s four prime movers ran riot in a 154-point shellacking of North Footscray in the Western Region Football League division 1 at Hogans Road Oval on Saturday.
The Warriors’ onball unit of Matthew Smith (44 possessions), captain Brad Murphy (40), Brydon Coles (36) and Brodie Moles (32) did as they pleased and received little attention from a Devils opponent that is clearly out of its depth in the top flight.
“That’s 150-odd possessions between our four onballers,’’ Murphy told the Weekly. “It’s a great effort but against limited opposition.”
The Warriors made an emphasis in the build-up of not taking the Devils lightly. The narrow margin between the Devils and Port Melbourne Colts a week earlier had served as a warning.
“It wasn’t going to be a layover sort of game,” Murphy said. “To North Footscray’s credit, they started really well and probably got the jump on us a bit.”
The Warriors led at quarter-time by 15 points but fell into the trap of not respecting the opponent, something they had spoken about during the week.
Warriors coach David Mitchell pointed out a number of flaws in their game at quarter-time, including a lack of accountability and selfish play.
It was ringing in the players’ ears over the next three quarters as they produced near-perfect football … well, aside from their woeful conversion (24.31) in front of goal.
The Devils were restricted to one behind in that time while the Warriors had a whopping 45 scoring shots.
The hosts piled on 10 goals in the second term to have the game under wraps at half-time.
“We really had to tighten up our defensive half and we did,” Murphy said. “To not let them kick a goal and only kick one point for a whole three quarters of footy is a really good effort.”
Chris Latella was like a human wall across half-back, letting nothing into his defensive 50 after quarter time.
Aaron Williams worked hard two ways for the Warriors. After being dropped to the reserves for not applying the desired amount of defensive pressure, he made it a focus to stifle his opponent any which way but still maintained the attacking flair that comes so naturally to him.
“He’s the best kick of a football I’ve played with and I’ve been playing for 20 years,” Murphy said.
