Tara Murray
Werribee made it six in a row with a convincing win against Coburg in the Victorian Football League on Saturday.
Having knocked off some of the top four contenders the last couple of weeks, it was a different challenge for Werribee against the lowly ranked Lions.
Werribee dominated for most of the day, but struggled to put that dominance on the scoreboard in the first half.
While the Lions won the third quarter, Werribee was never headed in the 13.19 (97)-5.7 (37) win.
Werribee coach Michael Barlow said they were happy to come away with the win, while still having areas to improve on.
“Six in a row now,” he said. “The last few weeks we’ve got some good results but there’s still gaps in the games, which is good that we’re achieving results with what we’re doing.
“There’s still elements that we need to elevate to be a top side up the ladder.”
On Saturday, Werribee headed to Coburg with the weather not sure what it was going to do.
With muddy conditions it helped make for a pretty contested game of football.
“We pride ourselves on our contested game,” Barlow said. “We were able to control it around the contest and the stats showed we dominated around the ball in the clearances and contested ball.
“We were a bit inefficient going inside 50 and finishing off.”
Werribee kicked 4.7 for the first quarter and then were at 8.12 at half time.
Having been plagued by poor goal kicking several times this season, it’s an area that Barlow and the group continue to work on.
“We need to tidy up our ball use in the front end,” he said.
“We need to look to get easier opportunities. We need to look how to get that next pass to make the short a bit more easier.
“Coburg’s defensive style put players back defensively as well, which made it more congested.
“We would rather 18 goals than 198 points, but at least we are getting shots on goal.”
Barlow said Coburg threw things around in the third quarter and they probably took a little bit longer than they would have liked to respond.
He said it was possible to make sure that they sustain the effort for a full four quarters, which is something they need to do more consistently.
Sam Paea, Bior Malual and Keegan Gray kicked two goals each for Werribee.
Barlow said it was their experienced heads in Tom Gribble (39 disposals), Jack Henderson (33 disposals) and Dom Brew (32 disposals), Malual, Nathan Cooper and Nick Hayes who were their best.
He said it was the time of year when things can get tough that the leaders have to stand up and they’ve done it the last three to four weeks.
The form of Gribble in recent weeks is what he has been known for and helped him win two J.J Liston medals.
Barlow said he was in that sort of form again.
“Tom is using it at a good level,” he said. “He always gets plenty of the ball, but it’s about making sure he disturbs it well.
“He kicked at 70 per cent on the weekend, which is a really good level. He also had 15 score involvements.
“He’s done some fairly impactful work the last couple of weeks.”
The win keeps Werribee in fourth spot.
This week Werribee faces Richmond on Sunday.
Barlow said they won’t get any of their injured players back until around the bye.
He said Richmond would present another good challenge.
“They had a tight win against Greater Western Sydney after the siren,” he said.
“The form line suggested they are a good side.”
Sunday’s match is at the Swinburne Centre at 1.15pm.
