Bell Park coach believes best is yet to come

BELL PARK will look to bed down a top-three berth in the GFL match of the round against Newtown & Chilwell tomorrow at Hamlyn Park.

The Dragons hold third spot on the ladder, thanks to their percentage that was given a sizeable boost with a 208-point drubbing of Lara last week.

Despite such a convincing win and the steady formline, coach Luke Rayner believes their best footy is still to come.

“We’re certainly still very much in seeking-improvement mode in terms of the way we want to play, so that’s the exciting part and that’s the challenge for our playing group and our coaching group,” he said.

Rayner said Bell Park would go into tomorrow’s game with a “pretty similar side” to its team from the previous round.

“It’s likely that we’ll be unchanged at this stage,” Rayner said.

“The good thing is that our list is pretty healthy, we haven’t got too many injuries, which is great, and obviously helps trying to keep some momentum and some consistency.”

Rayner pointed to Newtown’s spread of quality, including gun midfielder Matthew McMahon who ALVIE v SIMPSON performed strongly when the two teams met in Round 3.

“Obviously McMahon onball has been in great form and had a terrific interleague game,” Rayner said.

“I think they’re a very even group with, I guess, a sprinkling of top-end players.

“They’ve got some forwards in (Darcy) Troop and (Padraig) Lucey that are playing good footy, so we’ll certainly put some time into three or four of their guys in terms of some key match-ups that we’ll go with.

“In saying that, we’ve got respect for the whole playing group and we’ll certainly be hoping that our players take a good attitude into the game and respect the opposition.

“From a preparation perspective, there’s no doubt that obviously Newtown are a quality side playing good footy.” APOLLO BAY v IRREWARRA-BEEAC % Pts