Jack Kovacic
Josh Weightman has been named Round 13’s Post Office Hotel Lion of the Round after a good performance in Sunday’s disappointing loss to North Melbourne.
Coburg was on top early against the Kangaroos but couldn’t maintain it and ended up coming out on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
Weightman was a stand out in the Eastern Football League over recent seasons where he played at East Ringwood. He played as a top-up in Coburg’s last Development League game of the 2017 season where he put in an impressive performance. This led to him being given the opportunity to train with Coburg over preseason where he was able to cement a spot on the 2018 list.
He had 17 disposals while also picking up four clearances and five inside fifties in his eight VFL game on the weekend.
Weightman has played most of the season as a small forward has recently seen a change to his role.
“My role on the weekend as a midfielder was to be predictable and proactive by putting pressure on the opposition and being clean with the ball,” he said, “The last three weeks I’ve played the same role as a midfielder whereas the previous weeks I’ve been up forward.”
Weightman has noticed a big change in the style of footy played at VFL level compared to the EFL.
“It probably took me a game or two to get used to it, there’s a lot more unrewarded running and the skills are heap better.”
He saw a positive in the performance of the team early on in Sunday’s game although Coburg couldn’t go on with it for four quarters.
“Our first half was really good, we played exactly how the coaches wanted and we were pretty even, if not better than North.” Weightman said, “We just couldn’t kick straight which hurt us a lot.”
He is confident that a win is just around the corner.
“We need to stick to our club values that we go off which are; Professional, Selfless and Relentless,” he said, “If everyone does those three things for four quarters and plays the way we’ve been told to, we’ll get a win.”
Coburg will return to Piranha Park next Saturday afternoon where it will host Sandringham in what is shaping up as a massive game.
