Intense Roos go up a gear
Erskine boots 8 in crushing victory
STAND-IN Anglesea coach Andrew Bews declared his side hit another gear in Saturday’s demolition of Drysdale.
After a mixed start to 2019, the preliminary finalist dismantled the Hawks in front of a healthy Easter crowd at Alcoa Oval.
Key spearhead Jordan Erskine bagged eight goals and Ash Caldwell chipped in with three majors as the ’Seas ran rampant, kicking 22 goals to 10.
The intensity of the Roos was evident early, with the Hawks unable to run with them from the outset.
A five-goal quarter-time lead quickly became 41 at halftime and 64 at the final change before the home side ran out 77-point winners.
“When any team moves the ball quickly, at any level, and you’re hitting targets, as good as the opposition might be, they can’t beat the ball in the air with run,” Bews said.
“You can chase and chase, but you won’t get there, and that’s what it looked like.
“When you’re delivering perfectly to your teammates, you look so much faster. But if you start missing targets, then all of a sudden it goes back the other way.
“That’s footy. I’ve been involved for the last three years and we’ve missed a lot of targets. So sometimes the work you put in and the trust you have in your teammates, it reflects the way you play.
“We’re missing people that we’d love to have playing, and we’re having to massage things, but what we have is good cover.”
Bews, who is standing in for Paul Nigro, lauded his team’s pressure and skill level, declaring his side had lifted another notch.
“We hit a new standard with our ball use today,” Bews said. “With the stats that we can gather now, our disposal efficiency would be up markedly. Any mark that we take a stat on was well up.
“There’s a lot of stats we don’t take, but some of those are one percenters. AFL clubs call them KPIs and if we put them into a spreadsheet, we’d see massive improvement.
“And it’s basically about caring and making sure your teammate gets an opportunity. The smothers … Dale Kerr, Sammy and Tommy Leeds. We’re running to cover and using great voice and those are the things the great teams develop, hone and become great at and we’re seeing that.
“What we see in our club and our players is always going to be a up flexion, but the only way you’ll get opposition teams talking about Anglesea in a positive manner is how we perform.
“We want to be spoken about as a team that plays a good brand a footy and a team that works hard for each other. That’s great, but until we get other clubs talking about that, we’re still going to find that we don’t get the respect that we deserve.”
Despite a crushing win, Bews was quick to temper the excitement around his team.
“Have we played our best footy, I don’t think so. We’ve got tonnes to improve on, but we’re on the right track.
“It’s Round 3, we’re mindful of that, and there’s no grand final next week, but we’ve got a lot to improve on.”