By Tyler Lewis
An extremely green Berwick side has rallied to record its second win in three weeks.
Thursday selection was a waste of time for Clint Evans, as the Wickers were facing a perhaps new phenomenon on Friday afternoon.
“On Friday night we were saying let’s just throw a dart at a dart board and whoever’s number it lands on, that’s who is coming in,” Evans said.
With a long list of casualties during the week – beginning with Travis Tuck and Anthony Vella – flowing into Friday afternoon, Evans was forced to play four debutants – improving his tally of used players to 41.
And though the footy gods led Berwick to believe it wasn’t it’s week, the Wickers overcame the odds to defeat the fancied Park Orchards outfit on the Sharks home patch.
Berwick was impressive for the best part of four quarters, winning the first three, before a late charge made Evans’ head spin like it did last week against Rowville.
“Probably about the same, thank god they have a defib there,” he joked.
“They (Park Orchards) were always going to come, at the 17-minute mark of the last quarter we were 39 points up, I was thinking we should be alright, but then they kicked four real quick ones.
“Then I was like jeez, it couldn’t happen could it… but we then played some really good footy and with so many young kids we couldn’t play the way we did for four quarters.
“There was always going to be a time where they were going to get on top, we were just lucky it was in the last 15 minutes where they ran out of time.”
Though the old saying ‘one brings two’ seems applicable for the Wickers, given it took eight rounds to find win one, but just two to find win number two, Evans revealed it’s hard to believe as a group, when it’s never the same group.
“I think because we have been in so many games, we know our best isn’t too far away,” he said.
“In saying that though, if we had continuity and were picking the same guys every week you would say yeah there is belief there… but every week we’re making four or five changes, so when you’re trying to get games into kids but they’re not all playing together, it takes time for them to gel.
“The boys aren’t getting together (for long periods), you get guys going in and out every time, if we were picking 24 of the same every week it would be perfect.
“The belief is there, but it’s more about working out where our best is.”
The upset win now surges the Wickers 10 points clear of current relegation favourite North Ringwood, and while Evans confessed there is a sense of relief, he is eyeing off some more scalps throughout the remainder of the year.
“It’s a bit of relief,” he said.
“Knowing we can compete with these other sides, you always hope you can grab a couple of other wins.
“Now that we’ve done that with who we’ve had out, hopefully now the last eight games we can steal a few.
“Eight of the 10 games we have been in until the last quarter, it’s not like we’ve been absolutely smashed, hopefully that is the belief the boys have, because now they have to back it up against another top four side in Donny East.”
In other results across the Premier Division: Noble park handled North Ringwood 13.13 (91) to 4.8 (32), Rowville pushed clear on top with a 12.13 (85) to 3.8 (26) win over Vermont, Balwyn defeated South Croydon 13.9 (87) to 11.13 (79), Blackburn overcame Doncaster 5.17 (47) to 4.11 (35) and Doncaster East belted Norwood 12.11 (83) to 6.8 (44).
LADDER: Rowville 36, Noble Park 32, Balwyn 28, Doncaster East 24, South Croydon 24, Blackburn 22, Vermont 20, Park Orchards 16, Norwood 16, Doncaster 12, Berwick 10, North Ringwood 0.
TOP-FIVE GOAL-KICKERS: C Haley (Balwyn) 35, J Wilsen (South Croydon) 27, K Viccars (Doncaster) 26, J Lisle (Balwyn) 26, C Hickey (Park Orchards) 24.
FIXTURE: Berwick v Doncaster East, Blackburn v Rowville, Norwood v South Croydon, North Ringwood v Park Orchards, Doncaster v Balwyn, Vermont v Noble Park.
