By Nicholas Galea
A second quarter lapse was the difference in Saturday night’s game between Coburg and Werribee at Avalon Airport Oval which saw the men from Piranha Park ultimately fall short by 32 points.
Coburg’s endeavour didn’t waver throughout the four quarters but a departure from its structures in the second term proved to be costly.
Coburg started the game brightly with Sam Lowson snapping truly to put the Lions on the board in the opening minute after Josh Weightman intercepted an errant kick.
Werribee responded with the next three goals, two of them to Timm House. After slowing down the momentum Coburg’s Jack Murphy set up Sam Lowson for his second major with a clever dribble kick before Mitch Podhajski kicked truly from 50 metres to get Coburg’s third goal of the quarter.
Defender Jesse Corigliano started off well coming off his direct opponent to record two intercept marks whilst Lochlan Dickson, Joshua Guthrie and Marcus Lentini found plenty of the ball with each having eight disposals respectively.
Werribee started the second quarter much like the first term with several entries inside 50, to take advantage of Coburg’s exposed defence who were caught too high up the ground to extend the margin to 19 points.
An important goal by Sam Lowson at the 17 minute mark kept Coburg in touch after Werribee missed two opportunities at goal a few minutes earlier. Despite this, Werribee responded strongly making the most of a 15-8 inside 50 count for the term as they kicked the last three goals to put them 33 points up going into half time.
Throughout large parts of the third quarter Coburg had majority of the play, moving the ball forward slowly and systematically but weren’t able to convert those opportunities (12 inside 50s) with just the one goal coming from Jesse Corigliano. On the other hand Werribee made the most of their nine entries resulting in three goals.
Down by 47 points at the start of the final quarter, Coburg took the game on and was able to move the ball more freely in transition as well as general play. The faster ball movement allowed them to find targets inside their forward half easier with the scoreboard starting to show reward for their efforts. Goals to McEvoy, Neaves, Binion, Lentini and Lowson who kicked his fourth, rounded out the last term.
On the injury front ruckman Adam Swierzbiolek received a heavy knock late in the first quarter but was able to play out the game.
Speaking post game, forwards coach Brent Taylor believed a lack of structure and over possession of the ball in the second and third quarters were the reasons for the side’s loss against Werribee.
“I just don’t think we got the ball forward quick enough. I think we tried to over possess with handpasses and as a result we were under a lot more pressure than they were around the footy,” Taylor said.
“When they got out they were able to hit those free passes due to lack of pressure around the footy and also their better setup which they had predominantly in the second quarter.”
“I thought we worked back into it, we started to stick to structure again and the communication got up. We sort of lost our way in the second quarter, some of the boys went their own way into that and it showed in that last quarter we scored 5.4 to 3.1 and had time in forward half. It’s a good learning curve for us about consistentcy and if we get that we can probably take the four points.”
Co-captain Ryan Exon too reiterated that a departure from the basics in the second and third quarters played its part in the defeat.
“I think we just learnt that when we stick to structures and we do things well we’re a really competitive team but when we go away from that and from things we know work, we look ordinary at times which we definitely did tonight,” Exon said.
Although Coburg recorded its second loss of the season, their efforts didn’t drop off from start to finish bringing the margin back to a respectable figure.
“I think on a whole it was five goals in the end and we are not happy with the way we played. We can take that as a little bit of a positive, the fact that we still got within five goals despite playing pretty poorly for a lot of the game,” Exon said.
One player who was a constant threat in the forward half was Sam Lowson who finished with four goals from his 16 disposals. Forwards coach Brent Taylor was pleased with Lowson’s four quarter effort.
“I thought he (Sam Lowson) was very good, not just his finishing ability, he worked hard during the week to kick his set shots but his tackling pressure has been second to none,” Taylor said.
“A lot of those goals we were able to get, especially in the last quarter was through him tackling ferociously. He was awesome.”
We encourage all Coburg Football Club members and supporters to get to the game and cheer on our boys next weekwhen we look to bounce back against Frankston on Easter Sunday at Piranha Park. The opening bounce will commence at 2.10pm.
Coburg 10.11.71
Werribee 15.13.103
Goals: Lowson 4, Neaves, Binion, Podhajski, Corigliano, Lentini and McEvoy
Best: Lowson, Nolan, Corigliano, Lentini, Dickson, Cannolo
#WeAreCoburg
