Newcomb is hungry for more after win
RORY Nicol knows the significance of every victory this season.
And he understands that just a handful of wins could be the difference between Newcomb’s survival in the Bellarine Football League and the relegation axe.
But Nicol, in the final year of his contract, refuses to get carried away with Saturday’s shock win over Drysdale.
“We just can’t get ahead of ourselves,” Nicol stressed.
“It was a great win, but we’ve got a tough couple of weeks ahead.”
In a challenging fortnight, the Power meets premiership fancies Ocean Grove and Geelong Amateur.
Nicol concedes his charges are up against it, but he demands the effort that helped them overcome the Hawks.
“It comes back to the players, they’ve got to have the appetite and belief that they can mix it with Ocean Grove,” Nicol said.
“If we win, we could potentially be percentage out of the top five. So there’s plenty to play for, but Ocean Grove’s top five players are as good as anyone in the comp. That’s going to be the challenge.”
Thrashed by Barwon Heads in Round 1, Newcomb was competitive for a half against Modewarre before it all unravelled.
“We haven’t been far off,” Nicol said. “It shocked everyone else that we beat Drysdale, but not so much me. We got a fair bit of the footy against quality sides, but their pressure was the difference and we just couldn’t score against them.
“It was just an even per- formance on Saturday. We had 22 contributors and that was the difference.
“In the first two rounds we had two or three players win their positions, but on Saturday you could argue that 20 blokes won their positions.”
Nicol said his side had improved out of sight from Round 1 to Round 3, with pressure and intensity a hallmark of Saturday’s performance.
“We were hard and tough for four quarters against Drysdale,” Nicol said.
“We were a little bit smarter around the stoppages and our pressure around the footy was good.
“We were good for two quarters against Modewarre, I thought, but we didn’t hurt them on the scoreboard.
“We had our fair share of the footy, which was disap- pointing because we wanted to be in the game. Then the effort dropped off and Modewarre blew us out of the water.”
Banking wins in the early part of the season is pivotal for the Power, with the club staring down the barrel of relegation to division 3. “It’s huge,” Nicol said. “We’ve got a really tough start to the year, so to pinch that one is crucial.
“We go to Ocean Grove on Saturday and that rounds out four of the top five sides.
“We thought we might only win one game, so if we could be 1-5, that’s not a bad thing.
“Then we start to play winnable games. If we can win 2-3 in the first half of the year, it sets us up for the back half.”
Newcomb meets Ocean Grove at Ray Menzies Oval at 5.10pm on Saturday.