Finals lure has Wilson on edge
BARWON HEADS coach Olivia Wilson knew what was on the line in her team’s clash against Portarlington last week.
With the two sides fighting for a spot in the top five ahead of this week’s last round of the BFNL season, the Seagulls had to knock off the Demons to give themselves the upper hand in the battle for a finals berth.
Wilson implored her troops to dig deep at three-quarter time and it paid off with a thrilling one-goal victory, but she is aware things have to improve if they are to do any damage in the finals.
“It was a whole club atmosphere on the weekend and we had a fairly good crowd cheering us on, so it is always nice to win such a close game with supporters that are backing you,” Wilson said.
“We didn’t have our best game, so we were very lucky to come away with the win, but we had to do it and we got over the line, so it was a bonus.”
That bid for continued improvement starts on Saturday against third-placed Torquay.
There is every chance Portarlington can still make finals should it defeat ladder leader Geelong Amateur and the Seagulls fall to the Tigers, so Wilson will again be demanding her side is switched on for four quarters this week.
The Barwon Heads coach said it would be imperative for her goalers to keep Torquay’s defenders occupied in order to provide greater opportunities to post a winning score.
“Their defenders are very, very strong, so our goalers have to keep them busy,” Wilson said.
“Their shooting average is pretty high, our girls, it’s probably just movement rather than accuracy that we have to work on.
“If we keep them busy it allows us to have some clean drives on the ring without any of their defenders coming out, and our defenders pretty much have to be on their toes the whole time, ready to go for balls they might not (usually) go for.
“This might be a week where we try a couple of things we might have to use in finals.”
Torquay defeated Barwon Heads by seven goals when the two sides met in June.