Although a rainbow appeared halfway through the last, it wasn’t the fairytale finish that the Northern Blues had wished as Brittany Shanahan reports.
With just one win to their name, the return of former coach Darren Harris following Robert Hyde’s resignation hoped to be the answer to the faithful’s prayers.
But the Box Hill Hawks vanquished the Blues by 57 points on Saturday afternoon with the return of their captain Daniel Pratt.
The Blues presented a united front with co-captain Brent Bransgrove revving up the group as they stepped onto the ground but it fizzled out just after quarter time when they let their 16-point lead slip.
The Hawks had problems of their own when David Mirra left the ground on crutches with an ankle injury, immediately sent for x-rays.
Despite his absence, the Hawks were able to fill the void and move the versatile Kyle Cheney into the backline on power forward Bret Thornton who had kicked four goals prior to the move.
Hawks coach Damian Carroll admits he would love to clone the 22-year old who is more than capable of playing in both the forward and backline.
“He was pretty good up forward in the first quarter and I suggest if we played the way we did (prior to the Mirra injury), he (Cheney) would’ve kicked more than one,” he said.
“But as you can see he’s a good defender and we’d love two of him. He did nothing wrong but for us it was about stabilizing that backline.”
Angus Litherland was given the job on Bret Thornton early in the match and had four goals kicked on him, but Carroll said the 19-year old is “on his way up”.
“He’s a young guy learning his footy and the challenge is there to see where you’re at against a good player,” he said.
“The fact that he kicked four on him was disappointing but there were times when we thought Gussy had done quite well and had some good run out of defence.”
Ed Curnow, Andrew Collins and Brent Bransgrove were the prolific tacklers in the Blues side while Nick Meese was the sole ruckman for the afternoon.
The Blues convincingly won the clearances and hit outs but it was the Hawks who were ahead in the area that mattered most – the scoreboard.
Last Modified on 02/07/2012 16:34