A second-half capitulation from the Werribee Tigers cost them dearly as they went down by 43-points to Sandringham at Avalon Airport Oval last Sunday as Ben Carbonaro reports.
Werribee played strong and determined football in last week’s big win over the Northern Bullants whereas the Zebras were coming off a bye.
Sandingringham’s win moved the Zebras into seventh spot on the Peter Jackson Melbourne VFL ladder, and broke their two game losing streak – their last win coming in round 5 versus Geelong.
The Zebras started well, kicking early goals as they built a small lead before allowing Werribee back into the contest and in front on the scoreboard. This changed when the visitors kicked a goal after the siren to lead by a solitary point at quarter time.
All the positives for the visitors turned sour as the Tigers piled on eight goals to five and were in control at half time. Several undisciplined acts saw the Zebras give away several costly kicks and Werribee took advantage of this to kick some easy goals and led by 18-points at the main break.
Werribee’s good work began to unravel during the third quarter as they managed just one goal and two behinds for the entire term. While down the other end, the Zebras booted 10 for the quarter to completely blow their opponents out of the water. The Tigers trailed by 35 points at the final break.
On the scoreboard it was an evenly matched final quarter, but the Zebras continued to play a much better brand of football across the ground. Despite the visitors not being as explosive, the Tigers were unable to contain a rampaging Sandringham that steamed ahead in the second half.
Coach Paul Satterley was extremely disappointed with his team’s second half performance How the Zebras came out with all guns blazing really took him by surprise.
“It (Sandringham’s 10 goal quarter) was a little hard to predict though, wasn’t it?” he said.
“It was a massive swing in momentum and I thought some of their classier players really kick started their run and control of the game.”
For Sandringham Michael Lourey kicked five majors for the Zebras and St Kilda listed Raphael Clarke (19 disposals) was best for the Zebras playing in the middle before spending time in the forward line.
For Werribee small forward Robbie Castello (20 disposals) was again lively booting five goals.
While Castello took much of the limelight, several others were productive in an otherwise disappointing performance. Will Martinello (23 disposals, 6 tackles) worked hard running off half back, captain Dominic Gleeson (32 disposals) was tireless around the ground and Travis Tuck (20 disposals, 8 tackles) did a lot of grunt work playing at half forward.
The Tigers make their second ABC television appearance within a month, travelling to Teac Oval to face a strong Port Melbourne team coming off a bye on Saturday and Sandringham host the Casey Scorpions on Sunday.
Last Modified on 01/06/2011 15:11