Tigers to face home truths

BANNOCKBURN coach Peter Riccardi says the honeymoon is over as his side scrambles to find the spark needed to ignite its season.

After guiding the Tigers to a grand final and preliminary final in his first two years as coach, Riccardi fears his sixthplaced side has hit a lull after losses to Winchelsea and Thomson.

Not even a throwback to Malcolm Blight-style techniques at training could prompt a response from his players before being shown up in a 47-point loss to Thomson on Saturday.

“In our first year we made the grand final and it was like the honeymoon period, there’s a new coach at the time who we all want to impress and then we made the grand final,” he said.

“But now it’s the third year and we have just lost that spark, so whether we go back to the chalkboard and go from there, well, the players will just have to be ready (at training).

“At the moment there are too many blokes picking and choosing when to go and when not to go.

“We spoke about it at length, I’m not sure if our boys know their roles and we keep identifying what needs to be changed but now it looks like we’ll have to start changing as a club.”

Bannockburn’s disappointing loss to Thomson last weekend drew nationwide headlines after captain Brad Watts was reported, and subsequently cleared, for spraying his players with a series of profanities at halftime.

His rev-up was clearly a sign of the Tigers not meeting expectations.

“We spoke about (being up) before the game, we’ve knocked them (Thomson) out (of finals) two years in a row and they had taken a big scalp against Bell Post Hill, so they were going to hunt us,” Riccardi said.

“But I didn’t get this ‘flat’ feeling against Winchelsea (Anzac Day) to be honest compared with now.

“Against Thomson, I just got that feeling where the whole day was just flat.

“Thomson, to their credit, came out to play and they were way better than us.

“This was our worst loss that we’ve had in three years at the club, so after giving the players a bit of leeway it’s time to start telling some home truths.”

The loss of former cocaptain Jack Brauman, who just turned 23, has become more and more evident.

Brauman is on Werribee’s VFL list and will play at Bell Park in the GFL when not needed at state-league level.

“He’s (Brauman) a massive loss for us but when you lose one then other soldiers have to step up,” Riccardi said.

“We tried something different at training last week — we did the old ‘Blighty’ (Malcolm Blight) get the ball and then kick it away on the field.

“It was crash-and-bash footy. We thought Winchelsea were tougher than us so we went into crash-and-bash training.

“It might have taken a bit out of them, I’m not too sure.”