Young Eagles feeling the heat

FROM the top of the AFL to the lowest grassroots league, often there is one key indicator that divides winners from losers: pressure.

A popular buzzword in footy in recent years, fluctuating pressure can be blamed for Newtown & Chilwell’s up and down start to the season.

Newtown surprised South Barwon in Round 1 and succumbed to Geelong West last week due to a drop in intensity, head coach Damian McMahon says.

“In Round 1 pressure was the strong point of our game,” McMahon said.

“We tackled and chased and did the 1 per cent things well for four quarters but against West that dropped off and we paid the price. With really high pressure even the best sides can succumb, so for us we know that we need to maintain the rage for longer periods of the game and if we can do that we will be really competitive.”

For a young Newtown side to keep that rage up throughout a long season is a big ask, particularly with the interrupted start to the season, however it is constantly touched on at training.

“It is something that needs to be readdressed from time to time, especially with a young group,” McMahon said.

“We do a lot of it at training, there aren’t many drills we do that aren’t game oriented these days so everything that we do at training is under game-like pressure.”

Newtown’s change of form around the Easter break was mirrored by Bell Park, its opponent today. After copping a hiding at the hands of St Joseph’s, Bell Park bounced back in a stunning win over Leopold.

McMahon says the break didn’t suit his young squad but may have been better handled by the Dragons, but it will have only lit a fire under his team.

“For a young group, you’d like to keep a more consistent routine going while an older, more experienced group probably deals with the breaks a bit better,” he said.

“There’s not much we can do about it but we would have much preferred to keep going.

“Bell Park are an experienced team with good personnel and if we play really well we will give ourselves a chance to win.

“If we can beat them it will be a great result because they are always a club that is hard to beat but we need to win to get ourselves back on track.”