Hills downed again

By Justin Robertson
ENDEAVOUR HILLS premiership aspirations were dealt a harsh blow, when the side lost their first final 34-8 against a rampaging Footscray, who are yet to lose a game this season.
Played out in windy and sunny conditions, Footscray were the ones that came out firing, scoring the first 22 points before the Hills managed to convert moments before halftime (24-3).
After an early second half try to Footscray, the margin proved too hard to peg back and not even a competitive latter half could get the Hills moving into a winning position and they were eventually blown away at Henry Turner Reserve on Saturday.
Despite the loss, Hills coach Archie Kennedy remained upbeat about his team’s poor performance.
“They came out pretty hard and our tackling let us down, along with some basic skill errors,” he said.
“But, I still believe we have the game that will knock those guys over.”
Footscray came to play with intensity, which the Hills lacked on many occasions during the first half when the game was up for grabs and a frustrated Kennedy pointed the finger at his team’s lack of defence.
“I said to the boys at half time, if you want to win this game all you need to do is tackle. We kept letting our first tackles slip and it cost us dearly,” he said.
“We are still missing a few players back there and hopefully they’ll return next week, but overall it was the little things that hurt us on the scoreboard.”
The Hills have now lost their past four games and will front up against Geelong who beat them two weeks ago.
“I’m quietly confident we’ll win this week, but I’ve said that before and was wrong,” Kennedy said.
“We haven’t delivered our perfect game yet, so I’m hoping we can save that for the grand final.”