Dragons not done
Win keeps hopes of finals alive
FOR a club so used to success and September, it would have been easy for Bell Park to think the worst as they headed into Saturday’s clash with Grovedale.
The perennial finalists, who have not missed a finals series since 2014 and have been a regular feature in September since the turn of the century, knew if they lost to the sixth-placed Tigers at home, a spot in the finals would almost become a distant dream.
After a strong start to the year, Bell Park lost four in a row between Round 4-7, getting progressively worse in each performance, prompting a Sunday morning honesty session a fortnight ago after a 10-goal capitulation to South Barwon in Round 7.
Since then, the Dragons have not lost and Saturday’s 36-point victory over the Tigers breathes new life into the their season, suddenly leaving them just one game outside the top five.
“We were well aware Grovey were sitting above us and it was basically an eightpoint game, which is similar to South (Barwon) last week and we let ourselves down in that,” co-coach Tim Sheringham said. “We’re not getting ahead of ourselves and there’s a lot of work to make finals, but if we play the way we want to, we’ll get there and trouble some sides.”
The Dragons welcomed 10 recruits to Hamlyn Park in the off-season and have played 39 players in 2018 already, yet Sheringham does not believe the acquisitions upset what has been a stable group in the past few years.
But he does admit “we’re definitely behind” where the group had aimed this year.
“We weren’t sure what we were going to get and that’s the exciting thing about getting them,” he said. “It’s always an unknown and … (you need to) give them time to buy into our systems.
“We’ve got to find that jell as a group and we’re getting there. We had a really good chat amongst the group on Thursday night and really set our sights on finals.”
The victory over Grovedale came without spearhead Jarrod Garth, who will miss the next fortnight with work commitments.
However, this forced Bell Park to find other avenues to goal and the Dragons ended up with 13 individual goal kickers. Sheringham believes the new system “worked effectively”, giving the Dragons renewed hope that their season is alive.