Tara Murray
While finals are off the agenda, there’s still plenty to play for, for Werribee in the Victorian Football League in the final round.
Werribee’s small finals hopes evaporated on Saturday with a loss to Essendon, with the side to finish up their season this Saturday against the Northern Bullants.
Werribee coach Michael Barlow said they wanted to finish the season on a high. Werribee currently sits in 11th spot.
“Ideally you want to have something to play for [finals],” he said of the final round. “We want to finish really strongly against the Northern Bullants.
“We’ve lost four games in a row, we want to get the result this week. We want to finish the highest standalone club in Victoria. That is important to us to be the benchmark moving forward into next year.
“We need to finish strong as there is currently a sour taste in our mouths. We want to finish on a high as the season has had a lot of positives.”
On Saturday, it was heartbreak for Werribee against Essendon.
After trading the lead in the first half, Werribee led until the dying minute of the game. Two late goals would give the Bombers a 10.14 (74)-10.9 (69) win.
Barlow said the middle two quarters that cost them dearly against a side that has been one of the form teams of the competition in the back half of the year.
“We played an accomplished Essendon side with 18 AFL-listed players,” he said.
“We felt like the boy’s attitude and effort was tremendous. A bit more polish with the other side took it away from us.
“In the second and third quarters we let the game slip, with not enough contributors in those quarters.
“We were a goal and a bit up heading into the last quarter and they were kicking with a five goal breeze.”
Barlow said the group did everything needed in the last quarter, including kicking two goals against the breeze but it wasn’t enough.
For Werribee, Tom Gribble had 31 possessions in the loss, while Jay Dahlhaus and Ollie Hanrahan kicked two goals each.
Barlow said there were two standouts, but it was a sporadic performance overall.
“Nick Coughlan has had a really strong back half of the year after returning from injury,” he said.
“He is just so reliable and very smart with his ball use in the back half.
“Ollie Hanrahan played a bit of mid and a bit forward and hit the scoreboard.
“Both players are really content playing in our program.“
Barlow said the effort was there, but it added to the array of close matches, none in which they had gotten over the line. Several of those matches have come against sides that will play finals.
“The close results are not going our way,” he said. “Three losses under seven points and had another two games under two goals, and another one in front at the 15 minute mark of the last quarter.
“We have not got a result in close games, good teams get the results at the end of the season.
“In the moment all those losses are different. We wanted some reward for effort, and every chance we’ve had in close matches hasn’t fallen our way.”
Barlow said he takes responsibility for the inability to win close matches saying it has been their achilles heel.
He said that was something they would look to work on over the preseason, with it costing them a chance to play finals.
Barlow said there was plenty of good things to work on coming out of this year.
