POWER TO THE COACH
Looking too far ahead can come back to bite sides
THEY tell me football is a funny game, but after this round in the GDFL it’s downright hilarious.
The most important lesson learnt is that the competition continues to level out and no team should enter a game in a relaxed state.
The danger for finals aspirants looking too far ahead in their planning is becoming more apparent each week.
Winchelsea and Geelong West are now under enormous pressure to remain in the hunt for a finals berth after a spate of lacklustre performances.
West has to play the top four in the run home and will quickly need to bounce back after slipping to seventh on the ladder.
The Blues will be feeling some deja vu, with a doublechance possibility in 2018 fading out to a sixth-place finish, and with only one win in the past five rounds alarm bells will be ringing.
Both of these teams only have a few days to find the resolve needed to get their respective seasons back on track.
If their fate is not already known before they clash at Winchelsea on August 3, that game will certainly finish the year for one of them. East Geelong has been showing steady improvement during 2019, as a new group of players lock in to the teachings of Jeremy Power.
It is uncertain what the aspirations were for the club preseason, but I’m sure they are different now.
If they retain a one-gameat-a-time approach for the last seven rounds of the season, the new-found form and belief could carry them into an unlikely finals position.
We can look forward on their behalf and count five wins on the run home, but recent results across the competition have proven that method of calculation is fraught with danger.
Werribee Centrals is in an identical position, and its young charges need to be constantly reminded to look only seven days ahead.
The win over Bannockburn has the Centurions in fourth position, but the draw provides a tricky run home. This competition has some very interesting times ahead. the competition that its season is still worth playing for when it upset the Giants’ run to the finals.
Belmont joined the party on Saturday to put a big fright into Winchelsea.
It is always a challenging period when there is a midseason coaching change, but the young Lions group has rallied behind new mentor Lachie Edwards and seem very keen to not waste the remaining part of the season.
When you also consider that North Geelong, although eighth on the ladder with just five wins, has run both Bannockburn and Thomson to within 10 points, dangers still await overconfident finals aspirants.