Dragons set to swing axe after 104-point loss

BELL Park looks set to swing the axe in a bid to find the right mix in the wake of Saturday’s 104-point belting at the hands of a rampant St Joseph’s.

Luke Rayner said he and fellow Dragons co-coach Tim Sheringham would not be afraid to make changes to their side in an effort to find the “right players who want to play our way”.

The heavy 21.14 (140) to 4.12 (36) defeat at home was Bell Park’s third loss in a row after starting the year with three wins, and leaves the Dragons in unfamiliar territory outside the topfive.

“There will definitely be some changes to keep searching for the right players who want to play our way,” Rayner said.

“We’ve got a really clear way we want to play that we’ve articulated to the players and they’re well aware of it, however we’re not getting compliance to the way we want to play.

“My message to the players was we need to turn that around quickly and find a core group of players that want to play the way we want to play.”

Adding to the dirty day, Charlie Farrell suffered a “three to four week” hamstring injury in the first quarter, while Sheringham received a heavy knock to the knee that restricted his output for the rest of his game.

To add to the team’s misery, Saturday was the third successive week Bell Park was blown away in the opening term, and the second time in three weeks that the Dragons were held goalless in the first quarter.

“It’s a real worry,” Rayner said, after the Dragons conceded six first-term goals to Colac and St Joseph’s in the past two rounds, as well as coughing up seven majors against St Mary’s the week before.

“We’ve tried a couple of different things to see if we can address that, but as a collective we’re just not getting 22 players starting and playing the way we want to play.

“We’re not getting the response from the playing group.”