Bannockburn down, but not out after loss

BANNOCKBURN coach Peter Riccardi calls it “the man in the head”.

You know, the voice that gets louder and louder when the pressure mounts?

The only problem for Bannockburn was that voice took the country Tigers away from the plan they had made to dismantle the city Tigers on Saturday.

And in the end they were made to pay by the premiership favourites, who ran out 11.11 (77) to 4.9 (33) winners, earning direct passage into the GDFL Grand Final.

Bannockburn was way too slow moving the footy with the wind in the opening half, and then tried to do too much against it in the second.

It gave Thomson all the momentum in the second half.

“Obviously they’re a quality outfit, aren’t they? It was our worst footy for a long time,” Riccardi said.

“We just didn’t take our opportunities when they came. (We kicked) 1.3 in the first quarter with probably 75 per cent of the play in our forward half, (then) they go down three times and kick 2.1.

“Obviously the pressure gets to you. The old man in the head tells you to do stuff you’re not meant to do and it throws your structures out. That’s what it was, it was as simple as that.

“We were rushing more, which was uncharacteristic, but that’s what Thomson do to you.

“We spoke about going forward, we didn’t want to bomb it in … but we didn’t want to move it that slow either.

“It was about having control of the game and knowing when to go fast and when to go slow.

“But we just went slow pretty much the whole first quarter, which was pretty disappointing.”

Ruckman Kieran Fulton was dominant for Bannockburn, while Tom Parsons and Jake Myles had good days.

Tom Gillies, Blake Miller, Myles and Matt Hoe all chipped in with goals.

Hoe impressed in the forward line, shifting there after Brent Jacques had his day ended after copping a cut above the eye.

The crafty forward copped the hit in the first quarter and went to hospital for stitches after club trainers couldn’t get the deep cut to stop bleeding.

“Jacquesy going down early probably threw our forward structure out a little bit. We thought we could stretch them tall with a couple of smalls at their feet,” Riccardi said.

“But when Jacquesy goes down, we only had Linc (Peters).”

Riccardi is now tasked with picking his team up and preparing them for a do-or-die preliminary final on Saturday.

“They’re down and disappointed, but that’s why they get the double chance, to have two cracks at it,” he said.