ROOS SHOW THEIR SPIRIT
Anakie nearly kicked itself out of Saturday’s win over Winchelsea, so it was lucky the Roos showed plenty of ticker.
SECOND-YEAR Anakie coach Chris Moore was far from satisfied with his men on Saturday, despite the Roos’ redeeming seven-point win over Winchelsea.
The Roos were held goalless for an hour due to woeful kicking until captain Jamie Phillis found an avenue to goal moments after the final break.
Justin Lewis and Jeremy Sluggett slowly added to the scoresheet before ruckman Luke Wilson was able to halt the visitors’ final assault with a strong mark at half back with 40 seconds to go, securing a victory in his 100th senior game.
“That wasn’t our best win for this season but rather our most gutsy effort,” Moore said.
“We simply didn’t play the four quarters of footy that was required today and our kicking certainly cost us in front of goal.
“We were lucky both sides had difficulty and I said to the boys in the post match, ‘we can’t take gutsy efforts like today if we’re going to contend for September’.”
Wilson was named best on ground, Phillis again proved to be the most reliable in the middle and cocoach Jamie Grace found two goals earlier in the day.
And Moore believes the gap between his top tier talents and his emerging senior players is closing by the week.
“It’s not just those same names that get the job done each week, I think now you’d have to put Mitch White in that category,” he said.
“We’re talking about a guy who kept Jak Kennedy-Hunt (Inverleigh) to four goals, which we now know is a top effort.”
Anakie will now play off against Bannockburn and North Geelong while hoping for East Geelong to drop out of the top five when challenging Bell Post Hill.
“We have to face all the sides, we can’t hide away from Bannockburn, so we’ll structure our best side for the week,” Moore said.
“I wouldn’t say we did anything wrong in the middle today, I’m satisfied byy allll of our on on-ballersballers going forward to tell you the truth, we were just not on in front of goal,” Moore said.