Hills gets back to basics

By Gavin Staindl
WHEN a team like Endeavour Hills finds itself on the back of a five game losing trend it becomes hard to find positives but Hills’ Sub-District coach John Hayes is determined to find some.
The travelling Endeavour Hills lost its sixth match for the season when it lost to Bayswater in last Saturday’s Twenty20.
After making scores of 89 and 47 in the previous two games, the Hills’ total of 118 was a slight improvement but still not enough to hold off Bayswater who passed the total in the final over.
Back from a two-week absence, Matt Foenander bowled well without luck while Hayes also praised Chris Peake (37) for his solid innings.
While any sniff of making finals evaporated before Christmas, Hayes is looking forward to the challenging second half of the season that begins on Saturday with a one-dayer against league-leader Oakleigh.
“On Saturday we weren’t that great, we only played to 70 or 80 per cent of where we like to be playing,” Hayes said.
“After three bad games the negativity obviously starts to creep in,” he said.
But a father-son chat over Christmas with Hayes’ father, John senior who was a long-time coach of Pakenham Upper, inspired the Hills’ coach to remain upbeat.
“I had a few beers with dad during the break and bounced a couple of things off him and he said to me ‘at the end of the day I need to stick to what I know and be positive’. ” So that is what Hayes decided to do.
After the game at Bayswater, Hayes sat his troops down in the rooms and talked about going back to basics and retaining a sense of conviction within the team.
“We need to have belief in each other and ourselves.
“That’s where the positives come from, in our ability to back ourselves, back each other and to be able to walk off a field, whether we win or lose and look each in the eye and know we’ve given it our all,” he said.