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Coach says Seagulls need to learn how to contend
COMING off a surprise 2017 season where North Shore notched seven wins to be three games outside the top five, Sam Darley took on the playing-coach role at Windsor Park with renewed optimism.
After winning three games in their previous two seasons, external expectations of the group had risen.
Suddenly, North Shore was being spoken of as a possible finals contender.
Darley believes the effect of somewhat false expectation has burdened the side this year.
“We spoke during the bye that we probably felt external pressure after last year,” he said.
“The club made a big jump, but one thing I try to stress to the group, and one they probably didn’t realise, is that the jump to go from one win to seven wins is tough.
“But to go from seven wins to be expected the make finals is even tougher.”
The 25-year-old says he even believed the group had over-performed last season, largely thanks to impressive youngsters Jono Arcoraci, Jacob Miljevic and Harry Purcell, creating inflated hype around the group.
“In many respects I probably did expect us win-wise to take a step back this year,” he said. “In saying that though, three (wins) is under par for the ability this group has.
“The biggest thing for the group is they don’t see the talent that some of these guys have, and once that penny drops we’ll win a lot more games.”
Darley’s side challenged Leopold, Bell Park and Colac in the opening three games and did nothing to harm the new-found external optimism.
But, unlike 2017, where they defeated sides around them, such as Newtown & Chilwell and South Barwon, the Seagulls have fallen agonisingly short to Grovedale (three points) and St Albans ( one point) to restrict them to the bottom three on the ladder for large parts of the year.
“I know it’s a young group, but psychologically there’s been a lot of guys who have been here for the last four and five years, so they’ve taken their fair share of beatings,” said Darley, who is likely to return in the next fortnight from groin issues.
“It isn’t natural for them when they’re in games this year to understand the situation and what to do.
“We play our best footy when we’re physical, we take it to the opposition and make it a s--- fight, like we did against Leopold in Round 1. We should have won that game and had we won it the narrative of your season changes.”
However, with winnable games against Bell Park today, Grovedale, Newtown and St Albans to finish the season, and interleague forward Julian Dobosz (21 goals) returning from knee soreness today to join star Jason Davenport for only his seventh game of the season, Darley remains optimistic.
“There’s no limit on what we can achieve, to get that evidence for the boys that we are going in the right direction is important for us,” he said.