ALL that you can ask of your team is to go out and give it a red-hot crack.
Hoppers Crossing met that expectation against Sunshine Kangaroos in the Western Region Football League division 1 at Hogans Road Oval on Saturday, but still came up empty in an 18-point loss that severely damaged its finals prospects.
“I couldn’t question the boys’ commitment to the contest from the first bounce,” Warriors captain Brad Murphy said. “The effort and the intensity was there for 120 minutes for the first time all year.
“We probably lacked that bit of class compared to Sunshine.”
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The Warriors had the early momentum but failed to make it count.
“To go into the quarter-time break behind was a disappointing result because we really crashed in early,” Murphy said. “The tackling and pressure and intent were as good as I’ve seen it, but the scoreboard pressure was just not coming.”
After leads of nine and 23 at the first two breaks, the Kangaroos extended their margin to as much as 34 points early in the last quarter.
The Warriors, with plenty to play for in Matthew Young’s 300th game, refused to roll over and accept defeat. Aaron Williams had the chance to put them within a kick late in the last term, but missed.
If the Warriors want to feature in the finals, they cannot afford to put a foot wrong in the last month, starting with a daunting trip to Altona on Saturday.
“We know the next four games we have to win,” Murphy said.
“If we win every game, we deserve to make it; if we don’t, we probably don’t deserve to make it anyway.”
Meanwhile, the Warriors have received a percentage bonus from the WRFL tribunal, stemming from their clash with Yarraville-Seddon a week earlier.
As reported in the Weekly, the Eagles’ score was re-set to zero for all scores accumulated until the four-minute mark of the last quarter because they fielded 18 players when only 17 were permitted.
The Eagles had earlier had Clint Foreman sent off and, under the rules, he couldn’t be replaced. They played with a man extra for four minutes early in the last quarter and lost all their score up to that point in the game.
The original winning margin was 86 points, but that blew out to 139 once the scoreboard was adjusted.
