Dragons off leash in hunt for big win

BELL Park coach Shane Jack says he is likely to instruct his side to go on the attack this afternoon against North Shore in an effort to make up percentage on fifth-placed St Mary’s and play finals for the first time since 2017.

Bell Park and St Mary’s are level on 44 points going into the final round, with St Mary’s, which faces a tough test against Leopold, holding a superior percentage of 140.56 per cent ahead of the Dragons on 120.43 per cent.

“We need to make up a fair bit of percentage to get them,” Jack said.

“First and foremost, we’ve got to win the game — that’s the first thing we’ve got to concentrate on, but it’s definitely one thing to look at.

“We obviously need Leopold to beat St Mary’s, but we’ll worry about what we can do first and go from there.”

Bell Park goes into the final round favourite to make the top five ahead of the Saints, facing a winless North Shore side today that has conceded 300 points more than any other side this season.

Jack believes the battle between fourth and fifthplaced Leopold and St Mary’s could go either way, despite knowing a Leopold win would all but assure Bell Park a finals berth.

“Leopold is a tough place to win,” Jack said.

“St Mary’s have been in some really good form though in the last four or five weeks, so I’m expecting a really good contest between two really good teams. It’s too hard to predict who’ll win. We’re hoping Leopold, of course.”

Dragons co-captain Lachie Patten said at the bye that not making the finals “would definitely be a fail”, and Jack said that position had not changed internally since.

“It hasn’t, that was our aim at the start of the year,” he said.

“We’ve been pretty encouraged by the way the guys have gone about it this year. We’ve had some selection issues with guys not being with us all the time due to VFL, but I’ve been happy with the list.

“It was disappointing on the weekend (against Newtown & Chilwell) when we controlled big parts of the game but just couldn’t hit the scoreboard, so it’s been taken out of our hands now.”

Bell Park was without some of their VFL stars in the 42point loss to Newtown, including Kyle O’Connor, Cooper Jones, Nik Rokahr and Aiden Domic.

While it is likely to get most of those players back if it does make finals, Jack said small forward Luke Smith, who had kicked 18 goals in three GFL games in between stints at Geelong VFL, would not play again this year after breaking his collarbone with the Cats.

“He’s been ruled out. It was going to be a push anyway,” he said. “But our local players have been really good for us. Whatever we get from the VFL is a bonus.”