Into home straight
Hawks chose flight over fight, says coach
The thing that caught the eye was the Centrals’ ability to respond when challenged.
It isn’t the first time they’ve done it this season. They did it when they toppled Winchelsea to give their finals hopes a significant boost. They did it the following week when they put away a strong Bannockburn at Victoria Park.
They did it when they rolled what many believed were an unbeatable Thomson. And in that third quarter on Saturday, they did it again.
They are all positive signs heading into finals.
“That’s what I addressed with the group afterwards,” Smith said. “It shows growth. It shows improvement because I think this time last year — as a young, inconsistent group — we were a bit all over the shop and it was hard to find our mid-line. I think our mid-line is now a lot higher. Our best footy is still very good, but our worst footy there’s less of a difference.
“(Saturday) was just a great example of that.”
Miller, Reece Miles and ruckman Josh Sloan were all named best for Werribee, while Boyd (three goals) and Skinner (two goals) were damaging. INVERLEIGH coach Adam Donohue says his side decided to “run away” rather than fight when challenged in their costly loss to Werribee Centrals.
The Hawks coughed up the finals double chance in wet conditions, losing their spot inside the GDFL’s top three with one round remaining.
Donohue brought his players into a huddle just before the third quarter, warning the Centrals would be out to launch a significant challenge in the second half.
And they did, piling on eight unanswered goals in the third term.
The Hawks curled up their toes in response to Werribee’s attack, leaving Donohue bitterly disappointed.
The first-year coach kept his players behind closed doors after the siren, asking them a series of hard questions in the wash-up.
“It does cut deep,” Donohue said of the loss, and losing the double chance.
“I mentioned at half-time that they were going to challenge us and when they do, what are you going to do? Are you going to step up or run away?
“We ran away as a group. We didn’t have a good player in the third quarter.
“It’s really, pointing.
“I don’t know how you play pretty well and you’re in the game at half-time, and then all of a sudden, things just change.
“Don’t get me wrong, they (Centrals) played really well, but we played really poorly.
“I said that last week was our best quarter of the year. That third quarter was our worst by far.”
The Hawks are just stumbling into finals, having lost three of their past four matches.
Donohue admits his team’s form — which includes losses to Centrals, an out-of-sorts Winchelsea and contender Bannockburn — is a concern heading into the pointy end of the season.
Asked if there would be a forensic examination of Saturday’s loss, Donohue said: “I am probably just going to let it slide. There is no point grilling them about it.
“We’ve tried that (after) Bannockburn and stuff like that. I think we just … I don’t know … have to get back to having some fun, maybe.
“That last half last week (against North Geelong) and the first half this week, I felt like something had changed, like the spark was back.” really disap