While Werribee Centrals kept its small finals chances alive on Saturday, coach Rhyce Prismall knows the likelihood of sneaking into the top five is remote.
The Centurions got their fifth win of the season as they upset Bell Post Hill to sit three games outside the top five with five rounds remaining.
Primsall said while there was a mathematical chance of making the top five, it wasn’t something they were banking on,
“We aren’t too optimistic about it,” he said. “A few of the boys have written it off.
“It’s the old cliche, we’re just looking forward to each game and achieving something at the end of the year.
“Hopefully we can take some momentum into next year.”
Prismall said with only five finals spots for a 12 team competition, you have to be winning at least 11 games to be comfortably playing finals.
He said while they haven’t hit the mark in terms of wins they were looking for, there have been a lot of good signs.
“We’ve lost a number of close ones,” he said. “We’ve lost four games by less than one goal which is disappointing.
“All bar one game we have been very competitive.”
Prismall said while it can be hard to remain optimistic at this time of the season, Saturday’s result against Bell Post Hill showed what they can do.
With tricky conditions which forced the Centurions to change their game plan, they came away with an 8.14 (62)-3.13 (13) win.
The Centurions led at every break.
“Everyone who was there would say that it was blowing a gail,” Prismall said. “We played a good brand of footy for two hours to get the win.
“It was a really tough day to execute our game plan. We had to have a little bit of plan B and try some things.
“We tried to nullify their strengths and be good at what we wanted to do while stopping their weapons.”
Primsall said the playing group really bought into what they wanted them to, including new roles and different positions.
He said there was a really good vibe from the group.
Carmelo Saliba kicked three goals for the Centurions.
Joshua MacDonald, Max Murdock and Daryl Chesterman were named their best.
Prismall said they would continue to take some learnings out of the season.
“We have under-achieved from what we set out to do in the pre-season,” he said.
“We’ll look to get anything out of it. We have a fairly young list and we want to try to develop week in, week out.”
The Centurions face East Geelong this Saturday.
Prismall said they had been the team to beat the past few years and with it being past players day it would be a big day for their club.
Meanwhile in A-grade netball, Werribee Centrals beat Bell Post Hill, 44-31.
Ashlee Brunato shot 22 goals for the Centurions.
The Centurions sit in sixth spot, six points outside the top five.
