Warragul Industrials playing-coach Bobby McCallum concedes his team needs to get better at controlling its emotions in high-pressure situations after the Dusties almost gift-wrapped victory to Cora Lynn on Saturday.
The Dusties had control of the contest, leading by 29 points at the 14-minute mark of the final term, before a wave of bizarre moments gave the Cobras a whiff of victory.
Dusties’ players continually paid the price for remonstrating with Cora Lynn players after youngster Cody Templeton was tackled several times during the final quarter.
Free-kicks awarded to Templeton were reversed, and free kicks against him resulted in 50-metre penalties as the Dusties players lost their focus in a pivotal period of play.
The Dusties held on by four points after Cobras midfielder Heath Briggs missed a shot after the siren to secure his team victory.
McCallum acknowledged his team’s ill-discipline almost cost it victory, after coughing up a 31-point lead against Inverloch-Kongwak last week.
“It’s definitely part of the problem and something we’ve touched on already as a group; there’s a fine line between remonstrating for your teammate and keeping your cool,” McCallum said.
“We get different umpires every week, and on the weekend those umpires were hot onto it; anything that was done they were giving out free kicks.
“As leaders you need to adjust to that quicker, and we gave away a 50 that got them within two goals.
“In that moment it’s time to say ‘alright, let’s lock this down, no more 50s’, but unfortunately we didn’t learn from the first one and gave away a couple more.
“It’s an issue we will touch on again this week, but I have to put my hand up and say I don’t have a clean sheet either.
“It’s something we need to be better at.”
McCallum said he could partially understand his team’s frustrations after instances in the final term.
“I’ll go into bat for the boys a little bit, just the nature of the free kicks that Cody got; the two that he got that were head high, the guy that tackled him held onto the tackle and almost had him in a choke-hold,” he said.
“Our guys are seeing that and knew they weren’t letting go.
“I think because of the nature of it the boys thought they better go in and do something.”
The Dusties mentor said he wasn’t overly concerned by back-to-back last-quarter fadeouts.
“I need to make sure that it’s actually a pattern, not just instances that are making it look like a pattern,” McCallum said.
“The Inverloch game wasn’t just down to our finish, it was across the board, we had a bad day and had opportunities to put them away in the first half and have it done early.
“It was the same issues we had in the first and second quarters that I felt really gave us trouble in the fourth quarter against Inverloch.
“But against Cora Lynn, unfortunately goal-kicking was the issue and then in the end we gave away four 50s in the last 10 minutes and gifted them opportunities to kick easy goals and get themselves in a position to win it.”
The fifth-placed Dusties face a critical month ahead; starting favourites against Dalyston and Kooweerup over the next fortnight before wearing the underdog tag against Phillip Island and Tooradin-Dalmore.
