Anglesea gets reality check after loss

ANGLESEA coach Paul Carson concedes his side was dealt a “reality check” as it succumbed to the might of Geelong Amateur.

After inflicting ladderleader Barwon Heads’ first defeat of the season last week, the Roos were hammered to the tune of 75 points against a rampant Ammos at Queens Park.

And Carson made no excuses for Saturday’s drubbing, declaring his side simply “didn’t come to play”.

“It was a reality check for our boys,” Carson said. “I’m still trying to digest it, but a lot of things went wrong. Their pressure was better than ours, and although we weren’t playing great footy, we still had opportunities early to stay in touch. But we didn’t take those opportunities and they kicked goals at the other end.

“Look, we had an off day … a really off day. We’ve had a really big month of footy and maybe (that was a factor), I don’t know.

“It sort of caught up with us, but Ammos were too good.”

Asked if he felt that was Anglesea’s worst performance of the season, Carson quipped: “Oh, absolutely”.

“We’d lost two games prior to this for a combined 17 points and we competed really well, but today, was by far and away our worst performance by a mile.

“And I’m not surprised that was Ammos’ best performance, they look good … really good.”

The Roos’ skills were horrible at times, but Carson attributed most of that to the opposition’s relentless pressure.

“Their pressure was good but it was just the way we coughed the ball up,” Carson said. “Our skills under pressure were as bad as I’ve seen and that’s an area we need to get better at, clearly. That was finals-like pressure and we need to be better at that moving forward.”

Carson said he urged his side to not dwell on the defeat, with a huge clash against Queenscliff to come.

“Queenscliff had a good win and we’ve got Queenscliff this week, so it doesn’t get any easier,” Carson said.

“There’s another challenge ahead, and like I said, hopefully this is a little reality check and this competition is still wide open.”

Anglesea was without quality players, including Blake Grant, Daniel Courtney and Nick Swain.

Matt O’Dwyer also played no part in the game after half-time, having suffered a corkie in the first term.