Gippsland Power have continued their strong start to the 2011 TAC Cup season with a 71-point win over the Northern Knights running out 16.15 (111) to 6.4 (40) as Toby Prime reports.
The Power were in control all day never giving the Knights a chance to get in the contest to cement their position as one of the teams to beat in 2011.
The Power laid an impressive 69 tackles for the match, a figure indicative of the Power’s willingness on the contest for the entire four quarters.
“It’s something that I suppose going into this week we really wanted to focus on because we dropped away in our tackle rate in the second half of last week,” Gippsland coach David Loader said.
“It was probably the first thing in our team meeting was tackles, we know when we tackle well we are a pretty good side,” he said.
The Power laid the platform for their commanding performance early, holding the Knights scoreless in the first quarter to hold a 37-point lead at quarter-time.
It took until halfway through the second quarter until the Knights kicked their first goal when Jack Newnes goaled from a set shot outside 50.
The Knights put in an improved performance in the second term, but still trailed by an even six goals heading into the main interval.
The Power continued on their merry way in the second half kicking 6.2 to 1.1 in the third term to have the game sown up at the final break.
In wet and miserable conditions, Loader said that he was pleased with the way his team could execute their skills in tough conditions.
“We used the ball pretty well coming out of our backline, I think we only turned it over four times coming out,” Loader said.
“I thought through the middle of the ground our skills were pretty good and we used the corridor when we had to and played around the boundary when we had to,” he said.
Tim Membrey starred up forward for the Power with six goals, while vice-captain Clay Smith was best on ground with four goals, 29 possessions and a game high eight tackles.
Loader said that there was still room for improvement in terms of personal with Haydn Hector, Ben Eddy and Shannen Lange still to come back into the Gippsland team.
In their last three games the Power have been miserly in there defense, conceding a total of 13 goals.
“I thought today that we defensively we were really good with our midfield and in our forward pressure so it makes it easier for our backline,” Loader said.
In his first season at the Gippsland Power, Loader said that he was enjoying his experience of coaching a higher standard of football after coming from the Hampden Football League.
“There’s no soft games, there’s no easy games, there’s no teams who haven’t done their homework,” he said.
“It doesn’t seem like kids footy to me it seems like pretty tough, contested type of footy.”
The Power host the Oakleigh Chargers this weekend at Morwell, while the Knights will be hoping to bounce back against the Dandenong Stingrays at Preston City Oval.
Last Modified on 10/05/2011 16:28
