By Tyler Lewis
Round 18; 20 August; Monbulk Recreation Reserve; Pakenham v Monbulk – write it down!
The finals race is heating up in the Premier Division of Outer East and that particular fixture between the Hawks and Lions will determine who plays finals football.
Pakenham is in a unique position, with the same amount of wins and a better percentage than Monbulk, but are presently sitting behind the Hawks on the ladder – and ultimately – out of the current final five.
After dropping last Saturday’s clash to Olinda Ferny Creek, the Lions need to claim a scalp – all while defeating the teams they should – on the important run home.
And on Saturday, the results went swimmingly for Ash Green’s men.
The Lions handed Mt Evelyn a good-old-fashioned shellacking, 18.27 (135) to 1.4 (10), while Olinda Ferny Creek handed Monbulk its fifth loss of the season – 9.6 (60) to 6.16 (52) – keeping the door ajar for the Lions.
Green was simple in his messaging after the loss to the Bloods last week, while revealing the Lions should be back to full strength by the end of the home and away season.
“Keep positive,” he said of his messaging during the week.
“We had a lot of players miss out from the weekend in both the seniors and the seconds and that has been the forte for us this year.
“We’re certainly not making an excuse for it, it’s a challenge, we have to keep winning.
“Basically every game going forward is like a mini final for us, so if we’re good enough we will be there, and if we’re not, better sides will be in front of us.
“I probably think getting a better side back; we had Jake Barclay back for his first game since round 2, the week before we had Ben McDonald back for his first game since round 2.
“Jimmy Harrison is only a week away, so we’re hopefully going to get a few of our better players back, that’s a key thing for us.
“We still have a lot of work to do, we’re not playing the best we want to, on the weekend was a good tick, but we want to play well against these better sides
“But ultimately, we’re running out of games, we’ve got to take a couple of these better teams above us, if we’re good enough, we will win and play finals, if not, then those sides deserve to be in there.”
As he often is, Jordy Stewart was excellent in the Lions win – claiming best afield honours.
Through injuries, Green’s arm has been twisted into moving Stewart’s magnet up, down and across the board – but Green is hoping with a selection of players returning, he can put Stewart’s magnet where it belongs.
“He was fantastic, he’s had a really good year,” he said.
“We’ve thrown him around a bit in the last few weeks; played him forward and on the ball and all that, but he is one of the premier defenders of the league at the moment.
“Zac Stewart played a good game on the weekend too; Bailey Stiles – who has only played a handful of games – was really good.
“This time of the year you want to have your better players playing well, but we want some of our fringe players to be playing better and on the weekend was a good sign that we need to keep going against Upwey Tecoma on the weekend.”
The Lions have another expected win this week against Upwey Tecoma, while its finals-threatening Monbulk will host Woori Yallock.
Making the trip up the hills is no easy task for any side, particularly a side in the position that Officer is in.
But to the Roos credit, they were brave in difficult conditions against Woori Yallock.
With a howling wind, the Roos played some exciting footy with the gust, but were a bit scattered against it.
Despite losing 18.16 (124) to 6.10 (46), Officer skipper Ben O’Loughlin is confident the performance on Saturday was much better than previous weeks.
“From our point of view it was better than what it has been for the last month or so,” he said.
“All we’re really looking for at the moment is effort from everyone; it’s always a kick in the guts when you’re getting done by 100 points every week.
“But we’re just trying to get the young blokes to show you have to be consistent and you have to give effort 100 per cent of the time, especially at this level and in Premier Division.
“We said we need to take the game on more, we did turnover the ball a lot and we’re trying to fix that at training, you know kicking under pressure, hitting those targets.”
O’Loughlin has formerly spoken about the young and inexperienced back six he is a part of this season and while they’re under constant pressure, his messaging to his counterparts remains the same.
“Yeah I am in the back six as well, we’re trying to teach them – it’s hard at the moment,” he said.
“We don’t have two key backs we really need, as you can tell in the last two weeks – the full forward has kicked 11 and then 10 this week, so we’re undersized, but we just tell them to compete and compete.
“(we’re) working on being with your man at all times, you can’t just slack off… especially against these mountain sides.
“They like to hit up, they play on a smaller ground so they always use their half-forwards and centre-half-forward, so you always have to be with them at all times.
“Peel off when you can, but pick your moments.”
In the final match of Premier Division, Wandin defeated Upwey Tecoma 13.15 (93) to 9.11 (65).
