Reality bites for Hawks

Drysdale fights to avoid being first A1 club relegated

IT’S a question that has been posed to Drysdale coach Shane Cutajar more than once to start this new BPCA season.

What would it be like to be the first club to be relegated under the revamped A1/A2 system, considering Drysdale was one of the key clubs that pushed for the change?

“I’ve been asked this a bit actually and I suppose when you’re zip and five it does go through your head,” Cutajar said ahead of today’s crucial clash against ladder-leader Ocean Grove.

“It’s probably been thrown back at me a little bit, that it might blow up in our face and be the first team to be relegated.”

Winless after five rounds, Cutajar is well aware of how the ladder looks right now and how Drysdale may look if its season doesn’t turn around.

But he’s decided to give perspective rather than giving in.

“In previous years, if you were zip and five you were probably going to finish on the bottom of the ladder, but with 14 games this year it means there’s still nine games to go so it’s a much longer season,” he said.

“I’m using that as a bit of self-motivation to be honest, and not go down that path just yet.

“Obviously I’ve thought about the prospect that we could finish last, but I still look at it that we’re only two games outside of being off the bottom of the ladder.”

So how can a team go from a semi-final appearance to languishing without a win and five straight losses to start the season?

“Our fielding cost us the first three one-day games. I can pinpoint certain areas in the field, which cost us wins — certain dropped catches,” Cutajar said.

“Nobody means to drop a catch or misfield the ball, but at crucial times in the game when you think you’re just about to be in a really strong position and then you drop a catch and you identify that as being a crucial point of the game, that’s when it starts to get a bit deflating.”

Cutajar believes his side has identified the common theme around their poor start.

A biggest fielding focus, plus a “no bats or any other gear” training session, have been critical in bringing about some incremental improvement shown in their most recent loss to Collendina.

“Our fielding was spot on — we didn’t drop a catch against Collendina and our ground fielding was excellent,” he said.

“I’m really hoping that Collendina game is a bit of a stepping stone for us going forward.”