Giants coach praises team’s maturity

GEELONG WEST coach Andrew Clark has praised his team’s maturity following a scrappy eight-point win away from home against North Geelong on Saturday.

The Magpies came hard at the Giants late in the game, kicking four last-quarter goals, but it proved too little too late as the visitors held sway in an otherwise low-scoring affair.

Brayden Mitchell continued his stellar season, finishing with four goals for Geelong West, and Clark said it was encouraging to see the response from his players when they were challenged.

“The first half we couldn’t kick straight to save ourselves but they just kept coming at us all day, so the pleasing part was we walked away with the four points, where probably last year we might have coughed that up and lost the game,” Clark said.

“I think we’ve matured as a group and there is some selfbelief within the group that even when it does get tight we believe we can do the right things and put into practice what we’ve been doing at training in tight games to hold on to win.

“It wasn’t pretty all day but we got the four points in the end which I suppose is what we went for. It just panned out on the day like that, we couldn’t get any momentum all day and we couldn’t really get the game on our terms for most of the day, so it just turned into a scrap and luckily we walked away with the four points.”

The win leaves Geelong West just percentage outside of the top five and sets set up a fascinating clash with Werribee Centrals this week.

It was also the third straight victory by less than two goals for the Giants, but Clark said