This was not Werribee Tigers football. It was so far off the script that it was cringe-worthy.
The Tigers let their faithful down on Saturday night, not only losing to defending premiers Williamstown by 74 points in their VFL home opener at Avalon Airport Oval, but doing so in an embarrassing fashion.
It let the tyres down on what was supposed to be a special night for the previously undefeated Tigers, testing themselves against an in-form western suburbs rival under lights at Avalon Airport Oval for the first time this season and on the back of a stirring win by the development league team.
“It was a bleak old day,” Tigers coach John Lamont told
Star Weekly. “When you’re 98 points down at three-quarter time, it says a lot.”
Werribee offered no indication of the carnage that would follow.
The Tigers had played with spirit over the opening month, winning the first three games on the road.
Lamont was confident in his side’s preparation and it began the game promisingly with the first goal.
Then in 15 minutes of fury, Williamstown grabbed the game by the throat, producing a barrage of goals to lead by an incredible 60 points at quarter-time.
It was part of a stretch of 14 unanswered goals for the Seagulls, leaving the Werribee players shellshocked.
“We certainly wouldn’t have predicted it before the game; the feeling was good,” Lamont said.
“Our lack of response [to the onslaught] was the concern. All credit to Williamstown, they were right on the job and way too good for us. Getting beaten in games of footy is normal, but it’s
how you get beaten.
“We didn’t see a lot of change; we lost the initiative and we didn’t look to get too much of it back.
“We couldn’t change the momentum of the game.
“All around the ground we just got beaten and at one stage it was 20 goals to four.”
Majak Daw, with four goals, Will Fordham and Matt Hanson broke even with their opponents.
Aaron Black added four goals, while Tom Gribble tried hard. Otherwise it was slim pickings for the Tigers.
The replay is not going to make for comfortable watching for the Tigers, but it will be a necessary tool for Lamont and his players to right the wrongs ahead of a huge clash with Box Hill Hawks at home on Sunday.
“It was just a footy lesson,” Lamont said.
“It’s back to the drawing board sort of stuff.
“We didn’t do much of a debrief on the game because it’s all a bit emotive, as you could imagine, so we’ll have a good chat about this week, have a look at some vision and find out why it happened.
“We’re going to find out what they’re made of [against Box Hill].
“It will be very interesting to see how they react.”
