Tigers not ready to give up yet on finals dream
FINALS continue to slip away, but Grovedale is unwilling to concede the campaign and still believes in a mid-season resurgence.
Tigers co-coach Craig McCaughan said he remained committed to playing the best 22 each week even considering the prospect of development.
Grovedale, in the midst of a six-game losing streak, finds itself two games back from the top five but a win over Leopold next week would halve the deficit.
“We’re picking the best team at the moment, we’ve got to get our season back on track and we’re out to win next week,” McCaughan said.
“We’ll see how we go and we need to get some wins on the board and hopefully we can turn our season around.
“We’ll reassess each week and see where we are but we will continue to pick the best team each week and try and get some wins.”
The Tigers’ losing streak continues to ride off the back of poor disposal and decision making.
In its 31-point loss to Bell Park, Grovedale found itself constantly choosing the wrong option in the forward line and turning the ball over in a crucial position.
The Grovedale midfield is renowned for its tough character but remains short of quality ball users to feed the forward line, led by star Jordan Erskine. “We’re just constantly working on it and we can do it, we’ve seen that we can do it in patches when we have more time and space,” McCaughan said.
“It’s just when the heat is on we don’t choose the right option.
“We need to fix that up and obviously we have been trying hard but it hasn’t worked for us. I thought our endeavour and intensity was good today but we just fell away in the skill department.”
While juggling the positioning of the Delaney brothers has become a concern for the Tigers, they might have just found something with a couple of moves on the weekend.
Cameron impressed in the ruck up against the more fancied Zane Vail and Luke Delaney played a crucial role in freeing up Erskine, who booted six goals.
McCaughan said that Luke Delaney’s movement as a second forward option was helping to drag the defence away from Erskine.
“What Luke does really well is allow the space behind him for Jordy (Erskine) and he kicked six goals today,” McCaughan said.
“That was (Erskine’s) best game of the year but Luke’s work behind the scenes lets that happen.”