Halftime rebuke ensures the desired result

A halftime spray from coach Paul Schram brought the required result when Geelong beat North West Lightning 4-2 in men’s Vic League 1 at the State Hockey Centre on Saturday.

Despite a dominant opening where they built a 2-0 quarter-time lead, the Sharks lost their way in the second term, allowing the Lightning to level the scores by the main break.

Geelong worked its way back into the match in the third, taking the lead again via Liam Kerr-Nelson’s second penalty corner conversion and then found its best form again in the final term. It added a sealing goal via a penalty stroke conversion from Max Ferrier nine minutes from full time.

Despite sitting unbeaten at the top of the ladder, Schram said the inability to play a full four quarters was frustrating.

“Our goal in the first quarter was to come out really strong, pressure really hard and get some early results on the scoreboard, which we did and that was fantastic,’’ Schram said. “Then, as has been customary at the moment, we turned our second quarter into a nightmare and just completely changed game plan for some strange reason.

“It just all backflipped on itself. I wasn’t really impressed with the way that it happened and at halftime they copped a bit of a spray.’’

Geelong’s next match — a one versus two cracker at home against Yarra Valley in two weeks — will be a real test of its premiership credentials.

The first meeting between the two sides resulted in a 5-4 thriller at Yarra Valley and the former Premier League outfit will be on a mission to turn the tables when it travels to Stead Park.

“It is good for the guys to be coming back (in matches) but we’re not putting four quarters together and good sides are going to exploit that,’’ Schram said. “It’s not good enough. We train the way we want to play, with full intensity, but for some reason on game day we’re just lacking that four-quarter effort.’’

With seven games left in the regular season, Schram said Geelong needed to make the most of its chances and couldn’t afford to take the foot off the gas, especially against Yarra Valley. “At 2-0 up (against Lightning) we could have buried them. We’ve got to prove that we’re on top for a reason and really bury sides when we get that opportunity,’’ he said.

Geelong’s women lost their Premier League match to Toorak/East Malvern 5-2 in a frustrating performance.

“We missed some opportunities we probably should have put in, in the first quarter,’’ coach Shane Walters said.

“The second and third quarter they probably dominated us bit and then the last quarter for us was really good.

“We changed thing around a bit and put some players in different positions and the girls responded well in that quarter. But the game was gone as we were down by too much at three quarter-time.

“It was a frustrating day as it was a team we thought we were closer to than that.”

Eliza Flanagan, Merryn Coffey and skipper Emma Hatton played well.