NEWTOWN & Chilwell coach Damien Christensen has revealed he has spoken with his players about dealing with the expectations placed on the club in 2016.
After finishing runner-up to St Joseph’s in 2015 in just its second grand final appearance since last winning a GFL premiership in 1986, and adding some handy recruits, they appear well placed to end what is now a 30-year premiership drought.
“Expectations can beat a lot of people because it can get in people’s heads, no matter what sport it is,” Christensen who took Joeys to a grand final in 1997 said.
“Expectation is a very difficult burden for a lot of people to carry.
“We’ve got to move away from the media and supporters and everybody else.”
The Eagles have started the season with a come-from-behind win over North Shore followed by a loss to Colac, after losing recruit Tim O’Keefe and Jordan Crerar to injury.
Their injuries add to a mounting toll at Elderslie Reserve, which also includes captain Dan Feery and veteran forward Luke Forbes
“We were good until half time in lots of areas,” Christensen said of the Colac clash.
“We kept a very, very good footy side to four goals until half time, with two good forwards in (Jake) McGuane and (Jake) Carmody.
“We were happy with our defensive structure. We were probably let down around the stoppages in the third and fourth quarter, but we had to change structure.
“When you’ve got players who are winning certain positions, and those two were having a good day, and they go off, and we had to shuffle the magnets a little bit, which meant players had to go out of position.
“It’s not ideal. We lose Timm House, who was winning across half forward, he ended up going back to play on McGuane.
“Different players had to play out of positions we wanted them to play, and you lose momentum a little bit with that.”
Focus now turns to today’s meeting with Leopold, who narrowly defeated St Mary’s in Round 1, before falling away against Grovedale last week.
“It’s hard to get a form line on a lot of clubs,” Christensen said.
“We played Colac who we played off in a prelim with last year, and we had three close games with them.
“Leopold were unlucky not make the finals, St Mary’s are clearly building – they could have beaten Leopold and they had a good win (over North Shore) post-that.
“We thought that North Shore had improved when we played them.
“We know that Grovedale and other clubs have improved, and Leopold are in that boat.
“There are a lot of clubs that will be around the mark … Bell Park, Joeys, it’s hard to get a form line at the moment on how things are panning out.”‘
Christensen says that means clubs can’t let their guard down for a moment.
“Every week now you’ve got to be up and about,” he said.
“There’s no opportunity to sit back and relax, I wouldn’t have thought.
“You look at Joeys and Bell Park, I would love to have gone and watched that game, I reckon it would have been a cracker.
“Just a change in a couple of personnel from St Joeys who have lost (Paul) Carson and the pick-ups of Jackson Sheringham and Charlie Farrell and a few others at Bell Park.
A change in 2-3 personnel changes one club by a significant amount.
“That’s where we’re at. Our side is nine less than it was on the last Saturday of September, so almost half the side has not been available for us.”
That means Christensen has been able to blood youngsters like Ned Harris and Zac Sheahan.
“That’ll payoff in time,” he said.
“Again, you’ve got to be able to have good retention for that to pay off.
“This is where the points system really makes clubs work off the field that your retention is as good as your attraction.
“It’s probably changed a lot of thinking at a lot of clubs, but the opportunity for those boys is going to be enormous while we’ve got some good personnel out of the side.”
Last Modified on 28/04/2016 08:11