Tara Murray
An unlike Werribee performance proved costly on Saturday, as the Tigers winning streak ended at 11 in the Victorian Football League.
The Tigers were at home on Saturday against Southport, the second time the two teams had met.
The first time, Werribee snuck home in a match they probably shouldn’t have won.
This time Southport wasn’t going to give up the four points.
A goal in the 30th minute to former Tiger Wylie Buzza sealed the 8.13 (61)-8.7 (55) win for Southport.
Tigers coach Jimmy Allan said it was a pretty disappointing performance.
“It was a little different from recent weeks,” he said. “It was very frustrating.
“We didn’t play well at all and we still have chances to still win the game. We lost by six points to a good side.
“We’re a bit flat, but we only lost by a goal and being up to it until the end with some areas to get better in.
“We are confident we are hard to beat when we play our best football.”
Allan said a number of areas that they are normally good at they let themselves down. He said he wasn’t sure what happened but said having a few key personnel out didn’t help.
The coach said a loss at this time of year wasn’t the worst thing.
“There’s a couple of things to work on out of the game,” he said . “We were off in the first half and not defending well.
“We didn’t use the ball well and we made fundamental skill errors. They beat us at the stoppage.
“They scored two goals from centre clearances in the last quarter, that kills you in low scoring games.”
Aidan Johnson kicked three goals for the Tigers, while Hudson Garoni kicked two.
Dom Brew had 34 disposals in the middle of the ground, while Louis Pinnuck and Riley Bice had 21 each.
Allan said they didn’t have many winners on the day.
“There were three clear winners,” he said. “There were some others that didn’t play too badly.
“Stefan Radovanovic and Sam Azzi down back did some key jobs,” he said.
“Aidan Johnson up forward gave us a target.”
Allan said they had a couple of players pull up sore after the game, who would be assessed on Monday night.
He said there’s a number of players who would hopefully return in the next few weeks.
“Nathan Cooper won’t be back until the first final,” he said. “A couple are set to be back for the next game.
Nick Coughlan, Jack Riding, Jake Smith and Jalen Pavalids should all be back.
“That’s three of our best seven defenders in our best side on paper. Our backline though still held up well on the weekend.”
The Tigers remain in top spot, six points clear of Footscray.
They have a bye this week. A win in the final round, the Tigers will finish top
If they lose, they should still have a good enough percentage to finish second at the lowest.
Allan said the bye had come at a good time to freshen a few players up before finals.
“We’ll then look to come back and go for it,” he said.
“We just want to win and we don’t want to leave it to chance. We play Box Hill in a couple of weeks and if we finish on top its reward for the season so far.”
