THE traditional bomb-it-long-and-hope wet-weather philosophy was tinkered with by Scott West’s smarter ideas in the Werribee Tigers’ 18-point win over Box Hill Hawks at Box Hill City Oval in the VFL on Saturday.
Sure, there was a need for both teams to hurry the ball forward to ensure the game kept moving in the atrocious conditions so it didn’t become a rugby maul, but West wanted his players to think their way through the game and maintain a similar style of play to the one that’s served them well in most other games this season.
Of particular importance to West was a quick transfer of play from the midfield to attack and to do it by hitting up the shorter, leading options, rather than the long ball to the square, which brought the Hawks undone many times.
“I thought we played the conditions well,” he told the Weekly. “We wanted to be smart with the way we moved the footy and get it in nice and quick.
“It was important that we didn’t over-kick it to the goals and make it easy for them to rush a behind.
“They had more shots but we were smarter with the way we used the ball going into forward 50.”
The Tigers had seven fewer scoring shots but their shots on goal were from better positions.
Their near-perfect kicking for goal reflected that – 7.1 after three quarters – and kept them in the game heading into the last quarter.
The Hawks, on the other hand, had 4.13 to that point, but West said a lot of those behinds were brought about by his defenders being able to rush a behind from a bombed ball.
Leading by just six points after three terms, the Tigers outscored their hosts three goals to one in the last to keep fourth spot on the ladder and open up a six-point gap on the next four sides.
Veteran Leigh Harding was best afield for his penetration out of defence and pinch-hit work in the midfield.
The playing assistant coach also does a lot of instructing players around him.
“Having him on the ground is a good experience for the players,” West said. “It’s also helpful for me because he’s our backline coach.”
Comeback kid Ayden Kennedy again impressed. The versatile mid-sized player, who had a knee reconstruction last season, has shown since returning he’s adept at playing on talls and smalls in the defensive area of the ground.
The Tigers onballers were down on their usual output, but Levi Greenwood and Cam Pedersen were two who put their head over the ball time and again.
In attack, two goals apiece from the three Bens – McKinley, Ross and Warren – proved crucial on a day when only 15 goals were scored by the two sides combined.
The Tigers have a short turnaround for tomorrow night’s Foxtel Cup grand final with WAFL club Claremont at Subiaco Oval in Perth.
The Tigers will be taking a full-strength team to Perth in a bid to become the second western suburbs team in as many years to win the competition.
“It’s a massive week for the club,” West said.
“We’ve embraced the competition and that has a lot to do with the Kangaroos wanting their players to play. It’s a great opportunity for the Werribee footy club to get on that stage.”
