WHEN confronting the top side on the ladder, a team needs to make its presence felt in the early exchanges.
Werribee failed to establish such a presence and was out-muscled and out-gunned early by Powerhouse-St Kilda in a 4-0 loss in Hockey Victoria men’s Vic League 1 at Presidents Park on Saturday.
“They’re a pretty slick unit and they out-played us early,” Tigers coach Cam Whyatt said. “There were some defensive lapses we had spoken about before the game that crept into the match.
“With Powerhouse, you can not afford to concede penalty corners because they’ve got a Dutch drag flicker,” he said. “We’ve spoken about that at length and actually trained specifically for it. So to concede a couple of quick penalty corners and give up goals from those, it really put us behind the eight ball.”
Whyatt gave his team, trailing 3-0, a good old fashioned “spray” at half-time.
It could have been worse had it not been for the defensive work of Daniel Collins.
Goalkeeper Paul Coker, a fill-in for the absent Michael Alfredini, might have played himself into the top team permanently after a stellar performance.
“He made some real critical saves,” Whyatt said.
The Tigers came out a more organised side in the second half, creating chances and plugging defensive holes.
Powerhouse-St Kilda would find the back of the net just once after the break.
Whyatt was satisfied with his team’s efforts, largely inspired by the play of Sam Huxtable and Haymish Wawatai, in the final 35 minutes.
“They fought it out, which is the most pleasing aspect,” Whyatt said.
“It’s easy for a team that goes three or four nil down to lie down … to the boys’ credit, they stuck to their guns and really gave it a crack.”
Yet again the Tigers were not made to pay for their defeat, with all the teams around them on the ladder also losing.
Four points separate fourth to ninth on the ladder, with the Tigers two points out of the top four with a tough trip to Kew coming up on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Laura Baker fired in a hat-trick as Werribee displaced Knox from the women’s Vic League 2 top four with a 4-0 win.
