WERRIBEE has taken its supporters on a rollercoaster ride in the Bowls Victoria premier division.
The Bees have an up-and-down form line with every win backed up by a loss.
On Saturday, the ride was an extremely uncomfortable one, derailed by reigning champions Melbourne 112-55 in a brutal manner.
“We got smashed,” Bees skip Snowy Barker said.
The Bees have never fared well on their trips to Melbourne.
Barker estimates that two decades have passed since the Bees’ last road win over the oldest club in Australia.
“We haven’t won there in 20 years,” Barker said.
“They’re a really strong club.
“They’ll be in the top four again.”
The Bees’ big losses in the off-season have been well documented. The impact of those departures has not really been shown as they split their opening four games.
Maybe the results from the opening month just plastered over the deficiencies?
Or maybe the fighting spirit at the Bee Hive is so strong that it might be able to cover the losses by way of numbers?
What the 57-shot loss to Melbourne did show is that Werribee is no longer in touching distance of those top sides like they were when they played finals a season ago.
“When you haven’t got the cattle, that will happen,” Barker said of the inconsistent form.
“We’ve lost what we’ve lost and we are where we are, but we’ll keep battling on.”
Battle on is what Barker did against one of the premier young bowlers in Australia in Dylan Fisher.
Fisher held a late six-shot lead and was seemingly on track to give the Demons a clean sweep of rinks.
But Barker’s quartet fought back and salvaged some pride with a 19-all draw.
“We won four out of the last five ends,” Barker said.
Darren Christie (35-18), Mick O’Neil (25-10) and Ben Major (33-8) were comprehensively beaten.
Barker said the match represented a steep learning curve for some of the younger members of the Bees’ line-up.
“The up and comers, and the blokes who haven’t played there before, got to see how top guys play and how they do it end after end after end,” he said. “Maybe they’ll pick up something up out of it.”
The Bees return to Watton Street on Saturday for a clash with winless Mentone.
Meanwhile, Hoppers are still yet to win in division 2 after losing 92-74 to Williamstown at home on Saturday.
They will travel to in-form Sunshine RSL for the sixth round.
