The Werribee Tigers advanced to the second week of the finals, with a 26-point win over the Box Hill Hawks at Avalon Airport Oval last Saturday as Ben Carbonaro reports.
Playing in their first home final since 2001, the Tigers were hoping to put up a good performance following a two year hiatus from finals football.
It was a very sloppy opening quarter, with both teams making numerous skill errors and causing some costly turnovers. Despite the poor skill execution, the Tigers were still able to kick three goals to one and keep the ball moving inside their forward fifty. Werribee led by 11 points at quarter time.
Werribee continued to lead on the scoreboard, despite the contest continuing to be scrappy. They kicked three goals to two in what was a quarter of stoppages as both sides looked to get the ball moving forward and gain some much needed distance. The Tigers held at 14-point lead at the main break.
The third quarter was evenly matched, as both teams looked to move ahead by building a respectable lead. Some good defensive work from Box Hill across the ground made Werribee work hard to maintain possession and not make as many errors. The Hawks were able to cause their opponents to make some errors and kick three goals of their own, but trailed by 20 points at the final break.
Emotions were running high during a tense final quarter, three free kicks to Box Hill resulted in three goals. This keep the Hawks in the contest as they closed to within nine points, but the revival was short lived, as Werribee kicked away with late goals to advance to week two of this year’s finals series.
Tigers coach Paul Satterley was pleased with how his charges held on during the tense final quarter.
“They were coming (back) and I think we just need a goal to stop the momentum, it probably just swung it back our way,” he said.
Satterley paid credit to North Melbourne’s Ben Ross, who kicked two important goals to swing the game back in Werribee’s favour.
“I was really pleased with Benny Ross to come on and kick two (goals) after getting knocked out, it was a real credit to him.”
Ben McKinley and Robbie Castello both kicked three goals for the Tigers, while draft prospect Matt O’Dwyer (34 disposals) was outstanding running off half back.
First-year player Josh Ralph impressed with three goals in only his second senior game, and Ryan Jackson (21 disposals) was best for the Hawks.
This week for Werribee is a sudden death Semi Final against the Casey Scorpions at TEAC Oval on Saturday, with the first bounce scheduled for 2:10pm.
Last Modified on 06/09/2011 15:46