Tara Murray
Werribee will reflect on another slow start that cost it dearly in the Victorian Football League on Saturday night.
Playing at home for the first time this season and marking the 100th club game for Tom Gribble, Werribee was hoping to put in a good show against Southport.
Werribee though was left to rue a poor patch in the first and second quarters, losing 19.16 (130)-11.12 (78).
Coach Mick Barlow said while Southport put out a strong showing, they didn’t help themselves.
“The opposition were red hot,” he said.
“They came to play. We were a per cent off across 20 to 30 minutes of the game, it was far from the product of what we want to put out.
“There was a patch in the first quarter. There was 10 minutes they went on a run and we as players and coaches weren’t able to stem the flow.”
Barlow said finding themselves more than 30 points down was always going to be tough to come back from.
He said while they had moments of good play, they weren’t able to peg it back.
“It’s always difficult to sell some hope,” he said. “I felt like for large parts of the game, even the first five to 10 minutes of the last quarter we were close to going on a run and changing the game.
“With a margin like that everything has to go right, but the horse had well and truly bolted.”
Barlow said slow starts were something that had been issue the last couple of years and something that had to be addressed.
He said four quarter performers were few and far between.
Gribble, Sam Paea and Logan Wagener kicked two goals each.
Gribble also had 33 possessions.
Barlow said they lamented not honouring Gribble the way they would have liked. He said the co-captain continued to work hard and hung in there.
Other co-captain Dom Brew returned after missing round one and was fairly competitive around the ball while Jesse Clark stuck to his defensive task.
“There will be some individual reflection to be done,” Barlow said.
Werribee will be back in action on Good Friday against Williamstown in the battle of the two western suburbs teams.
Barlow said they needed to be switched on otherwise they would be made to pay again.
“They’ve had our measure for some time,” he said.
“They’re had a fair change of the guard, what we know what to expect. If we play like we did on the weekend and have six or seven players off for a period of time we will be up against it.”
