Endeavour Hills flanker Felise Tovio was one of his side’s best players in its 57-7 defeat to Footscray at Frog Hollow Reserve on Saturday.By Marc McGowan
A WEEK after celebrating its first victory of the season, Endeavour Hills crashed back to earth in a 57-7 shellacking at the hands of Footscray at Frog Hollow Reserve on Saturday.
There have been very few highlights in what coach Jeff Lemalu has dubbed a rebuilding year for the club and the weekend certainly did nothing to change that.
Apart from a late try to Setu Felise – one of the few Hills’ players who could hold his head high – it was a forgettable encounter for the home side.
Footscray boasted a 10-0 lead inside the opening 15 minutes and continued to achieve success out wide as it burnt Endeavour Hills with its ball skills and speed.
The visitors rattled off three more converted scores to open up a 31-0 advantage at half-time.
The Hills did not even look like scoring outside of a rampaging run from Seyla Khat, who combined with Wallace Esera to almost pierce Footscray’s watertight defence.
Lemalu scolded his team for playing “stupid” rugby at the break, but despite slight improvement there was much of the same on resumption.
Footscray went over in the opening minutes of the second half and a test of strength moments later delivered yet another try to establish a 43-point buffer.
Two more tries followed to put Footscray ahead 57-0 before Felise finally gave Endeavour Hills something to cheer about.
A series of passes left the ball in Felise’s possession and he dummied out wide before cutting inside for his club’s sole score.
Felise Tovio was the only other Hills player to escape Lemalu’s wrath.
“It was definitely one of those weeks where you just don’t want to be there, but part of being a sportsman is having bad weeks and hopefully it’ll be a good week this week,” Lemalu said.
“It was pretty poor overall and I think our senior players need to stand up and take charge of the team.
“I think our young guys Setu Felise and Felise Tovio played well, but it takes more than two players to run a team.”
Lemalu revealed that up to 80 per cent of his squad was different to last season and urged captain Presley Naea and Tim Finau to improve their leadership.
“We definitely need to focus on our senior players taking control of the team because our younger guys are getting pushed around the paddock,” he said.
“Moving from juniors to seniors is a big step up.”
Endeavour Hills is back in action against Moorabbin at Keys Road Reserve in Cheltenham North from 3.15pm on Saturday.
