Werribee Tigers coach John Lamont. Photo: Damjan Janevski
Port Melbourne’s well-drilled VFL veterans gave the inexperienced Werribee Tigers a lesson in sticking to a task in a 24-point win at Avalon Airport Oval on Sunday.
The young Tigers have shown promise all season and are not that far off the competition’s pacesetters. But the all-too-familiar mental drop-offs that have plagued the group are likely to cost them a finals double chance after slipping a game and a half outside the top four.
Compounding Werribee’s woes further was that too much of the workload was heaped on raw youngsters as their own seasoned campaigners chose the wrong game to have an off day.
“A couple of our older blokes either didn’t get involved or lowered their colours,” Tigers coach John Lamont said. “You need your experienced blokes on the job.”
There’s no substitute for experience and Port, having opened up a two-game break at the top of the ladder, has it in abundance.
Lamont can’t speed up the process and understands it will take time for his squad to make implementing a style for 120 minutes second nature.
“Part of it is maturity,” he said.
The Tigers are a promising young team showing flashes of what they’re capable of producing.
Their tendency to switch off at important moments is a major reason why they’re not in a loftier position.
“[Port is] a mature group and they know how each other are going to play,” Lamont said.
“There’s a crew of those boys – [Toby] Pinwill, [Chris] Cain, [John] Baird, [Shane] Valenti, [Tom] Langford – who have been playing together for a long time.
“To beat them, you’ve got to play consistent, hard footy for 120 minutes. If you drop off, you’ll get beaten and that’s what happened to us.
“We’d kick a point, then drop off defensively, then we’d go hard for a while, kick a goal, then a couple of blokes would drop off for a few minutes and we’d let them in for a goal. You can’t do that.
“You’ve got to hang in there and keep the pressure on. Because if one bloke drops off and misses tackles or doesn’t press up defensively or kicks the ball to the wrong spot, they’ll get you.”
Michael Sodamaco and Taylor Hine were the standouts for the Tigers.
Sodamaco did a good job blanketing the dangerous Valenti, while Hine got the better of Cain. Sodamaco’s day was spoilt by a shoulder injury that’s likely to see him miss games in the run-in to the finals.
“They had specific roles and played them well,” Lamont said. “They’d be the main two blokes who stuck to their task and restricted their [opponent’s] influence.”
It still took the Borough until time-on in the last quarter to claim the four premiership points.
Tigers forward Ben Brown was left to rue a missed shot on goal at the 22-minute mark that would have cut the deficit to less than a kick, only for the Borough to go up the other end and major to put the game out of reach.
The Tigers will welcome Footscray to Watton Street on Sunday from 1pm.
