Finals chance slipping away
It wasn’t Warragul’s day at Bairnsdale on Saturday.
In a match that had the Gulls’ – and Bairnsdale’s – chance of remaining in contention to push for a place in the finals Warragul was jumped at the start.
The Redlegs had four goals on the board in the first nine minutes.
After five changes at selection on Thursday night, two of them Matthew Ross and Leigh Sheehan forced changes, to the side that lost by a point to Sale the previous week Warragul also had to find a late replacement for Tyssen Morrow who became a father on Friday night.
Then during the game star onballer Nate Paredes was knocked out and carried from the ground on a stretcher, and Dylan Proctor was also lost after re-injuring a hamstring.
And when Warragul did settle following Bairnsdale’s early goal rush it frittered away chances to bridge the gap with inaccurate kicking for goal.
All of that helped add up to 1613 to 9-16 defeat.
The Gulls were generally a match for Bairnsdale in the second and third quarters but a return of 4-8 for that period had them 40 points down at the threequarter time break.
They rallied in the final quarter kicking four of the first five goals before the Redlegs steadied and kicked the last three.
Over the course of the game Bairnsdale was able to too frequently break Warragul tackles and the Gulls made their forwards’ tasks more difficult than needed with slow movement of the ball into attack.
They led the inside-50 metre arc count but couldn’t capitalise.
Bairnsdale defender Simon Deery continued his excellent form for the season and was a stumbling block for four quarters.
He swept across the defensive lines to intercept Warragul’s forward moves, something he continued to do even when the Gulls tried to play him man-on-man.
The losses of Paredes and Proctor caused some reshuffling in the Warragul line-up but a couple of other changes were made to try lift the side.
They included moving defender Matt Rennie into the midfield and Nic Stevenson to the forward line and as a back up for Jake Hortsman in the ruck.
Young on-baller Kim Drew was again in great form and when forward and others among Warragul’s better players were Tom Kelly, Rennie, Sam Russell on his return after a lengthy injury absence, Luke Di Ciero and Tom Muir.
Drew, with two, was the only multiple goal scorer.
The other goals were singles from Muir, Luke Di Ciero, Rennie, Tom Kelly, Paredes, Horstman and Scott Kelly.
With three wins from nine games at the midway point of the season finals are a distant thought to Warragul.
The focus will be firmly on producing its best more consistently, during games as well as from week to week.