Werribee has peaked at the right time of the Hockey Victoria men’s Vic League 2 season.
The Tigers opened the finals with a jaw-dropping 5-0 win over St Bedes in the semi-final at Footscray Hockey Centre on Sunday.
It was a performance that quickly made you forget the Tigers were second-last on the ladder and in relegation danger only six weeks ago.
Tigers defender Ross Cowlishaw believes his team played to its maximum capabilities in week one of the finals.
“After today, I’d say we’re playing at 100 per cent,” he said.
“Our last eight games, we’ve only dropped the one and had a draw in there as well, but we’re definitely getting better and better.”
Werribee has approached every game for the past two months like it’s a grand final.
The Tigers only snuck into the top four with a win in the final round of the season.
All that experience in cut-throat games could be a benefit to the Tigers heading into their preliminary final with Old Xavarians.
The Xavs’ path to the finals was a total contrast, coasting through the home-and-away rounds with just one loss and easily scooping the minor premiership.
It will be the Xavs going into the game with the pressure of the favourites tag, while the in-form Tigers get a free shot at the best team in the competition.
“We needed to win just about every game to get in,” Cowlishaw said.
“They’ll be feeling the pressure, we’ve got no pressure on us.
“Six weeks ago we were going to be relegated, but we had faith in ourselves and we’ve proven a point. For us, it doesn’t matter who we play, we’ve just got to win.”
Werribee went into half-time of the St Bedes game with a one-goal advantage.
The Tigers came out breathing fire in the second half, piling on four unanswered goals and maintained a clean sheet.
“Going into the second half, we thought they were going to come out red hot with not much in it really, and to our guys’ credit, our forwards stood up and banged the goals in,” Cowlishaw said.
“To do that in a final sends a bit of a message to the rest of the league.”
Jacob Friedl produced his most damaging game of the season with two goals.
Thomas Camilleri, Sam Huxtable and Cameron Briscoe also scored, but it was a breakout game from Friedl that could spark his September.
“It was his first goal for the seniors and he actually scored two in the game,” Cowlishaw said. “He was rapt, it’s a massive boost for his confidence.”
In women’s Vic League 2, Werribee is through to the grand final after a nail-biting semi-final shoot-out win over Monash University at the Footscray Hockey Centre on Sunday.
The game finished 1-1 in regulation time, but the Tigers took the shoot-out 4-2.
“They didn’t look like missing in the one-on-one penalties,” Cowlishaw said.
