The Northern Knights have suffered a disappointing
seven goal loss at the hands of the Gippsland Power. In torrid
conditions down at Moe it was the Power who got the early lead and
gradually added to it in each quarter.
The
first term saw Gippsland come out and attack the contest hard. Their
ferocity at the ball saw them winning possession in contested
situations, which in turn meant that the Knights were conceding too
many free kicks. On the rare occasions the Knights did enter their
forward 50 the Power were able to rebound quickly and with little
difficulty. At quarter time Gippsland held a five goals to two lead.
In
a relatively uneventful second quarter the sides traded one goal each,
however Gippsland were inaccurate in their conversion to keep the
Knights alive. However, it was clear that the Power were dealing with
the wet conditions much better and this certainly wasn’t lost on
Knights Coach Paul Satterley. “Our boys just didn’t adapt to the
conditions. Some were trying to do things that didn’t suit the weather
like handballing too much.”
The
second half was played in a similarly scrappy fashion and the Knights
could only muster a goal in each quarter, while the Power scored three
goals in each of the last two terms to blow the final margin out to 41
points.
It was a day where very little was
going right for the Knights and Satterley noted that it all started
from that opening term. “We were going in second for the footy and were
giving away too many frees. It was the first wet weather game (of the
season) for both sides and Gippsland dealt with it really well.”
Satterley
maintained a touch of optimism by putting it down as a learning curve
for his inexperienced group, which consisted of 16 bottom aged or first
year players. “For a young side, throughout the game there was some
good intensity at stages, but it’s the inconsistent efforts we need to
get rid of. The inexperience of our side is not an excuse because there
were areas that we were poor in that we can be better at.
“A
four quarter performance is something we will keep working on. It’s not
just keeping our intensity up within a game. We have players not
backing it up from good games that they’ve had, so our consistency also
needs to improve on a week to week basis. Improvement doesn’t come in
one week, it comes over a number of weeks.”
Next
week is a general bye in the TAC Cup for U/18 Vic Metro trial games to
take place, but the Knights next game is against the Geelong Falcons on
Saturday May 17 at Skilled Stadium.
Gippsland Power 12.11.83 def. Northern Knights 5.12.42
Goals: Hood 2, Dornauf, Hurley, Kelly
Best: Lambert, Paynter, Hill, Dornauf, Drapac, Kelly
Last Modified on 19/05/2008 16:26
