Hoppers bounced back in perfect fashion to account for Altona 3 in the Bowls Victoria weekend pennant division 3, section 1 competition on Saturday.
After a strong start to the season, the Eagles are in the middle of one of their most challenging parts of the season.
Sitting in the top three, the side faces the other two sides in the top three along with them.
After losing to Yarraville-Footscray 3, the Eagles bounced back on Saturday to account for Altona 3, 97 (16)-59 (2).
It was Altona’s first loss of the season.
Hoppers coach Stephen Macklin said the group had chatted after the loss to the Bulldogs and to get back on track.
“I think it was one of those does where nothing went right and everyone pretty much felt like they had a bad day,” he said.
“My perspective as a coach was how can we learn from it and what can we do better to make our bad days not as bad.
“We tackled it head on about what we needed to do and a few people were fiery in the conversation.
“We have work to do and how are we going to do it.”
Macklin said the focus of the group had been to make sure they were playing together as a team and that everyone was playing their roles.
“When you’re winning it’s easy,” he said. “If you lose you have to reset and rethink.”
Macklin said a couple of rinks that had struggled a little bit the past couple of weeks had really good performances on Saturday.
Macklin’s rink had a 28-9 win, Albert Wu’s rink had a 21-15 win and Glenn Voysey’s rink had a 32-15 win.
“They took responsibility as a group and we got back to basics,” he said.
“Sometimes you can try too hard. It’s not always about the perfect bowl, it’s about the solid team approach.”
Macklin said he and team captain Andrew Doyle spoke before the two matches against Yarraville-Footscray and Altona and said they wanted to win at least one of those games.
Just eight points separates those three teams which all have 4-1-1 records, with Hoppers sitting third.
Macklin said having achieved that the focus of winning at least one of the past two matches was now on Keilor 2 this weekend.
In division 2, section 2, Werribee lost to Club Sunbury 2.
Sunbury only just got home, winning 92 (14)-89 (4).
Gavin Joyce and Ian Milledge were the winning skips for the Bees.
The Bees sit in sixth spot with a 3-2-1.
In division 4, section 1, Point Cook beat Yarraville-Footscray 4, 84 (16)-71 (2).
Point Cook sits second on the ladder.
