Saints eager to plug goals leak
ST MARY’S coach Bruce Waldron says his side faces another huge test today against second-placed South Barwon away from home.
The Saints fell short against Leopold last weekend to leave themselves dangling on the edge of the top five.
But Waldron said his side would go in as the underdog, rating South Barwon in a group of runaway leaders.
“It’s a big test. The three at the top seem to stand out a bit to me. We’ll just see how we go,” he said.
“I’ve seen a fair bit of them play. I went and watched them earlier in the year and a lot of their girls play VNL — a lot depends who’s there for them — they’ve got a star-studded lineup though.
“They’ve just got a lot of good players that play at a good level — VNL and ANL.
“We’ll go up there and have a crack and see how we go.”
Waldron admitted his side could be left to lament a threegoal loss to Colac in Round 3, which would have given the Saints breathing space inside the top five.
Waldron said that his players were still learning to find consistency.
“We’re young and I think young sides tend to lose games in five minutes,” he said.
“Young sides can lose games they shouldn’t lose but they also have a tendency to win games they probably shouldn’t win too.
“It’s a very even competition. Those last two spots in the finals, it’s going to be a real race for those.
“All those games against Colac and Leopold and Joeys, they’re all eight-point games.”
Waldron said that defensively his side needed to strengthen after conceding 51 goals to Grovedale and 56 to Leopold in the past fortnight.
“I’d like it to be a little lower scoring, to be honest,” he said.
“You need to tighten up because you’re not going to be competitive at the top end — you’re not competitive with Newtown if you’re leaking that many goals.
“But I think individually they’ve improved and collectively we’ve improved. Last week in patches we were very good but I think we’ve got to tighten up defensively.”