Western Jets were hunting in packs on the weekend but poor goal kicking cost them any chance of a win. 69527 Picture: EMILY LANE
By Liam Twomey
Western Jets have been dealt a wake-up call on the eve of the TAC Cup finals after being soundly beaten by the Sandringham Dragons.
The match looked like a blockbuster on paper with two top four teams going toe to toe.
However, the Jets suffered a disastrous day in front of the big sticks leaving them to wonder what could have been only kicking 4.18, to go down by 52 points.
Both sides were neck and neck early as Sandringham opened up a slender four point lead at quarter time.
Despite not being able to make inroads on the scoreboard, the Jets were able to stick with the Dragons and ensure the margin didn’t blow out in the second and third quarters.
However, their luck ran out as Sandringham finally broke the match open in the last term, kicking six goals to one and sealing the big win, 14.10 (94) to 4.18 (42).
Western Jets coach Steve Kretiuk said it was a disappointing result.
“We were really in the game up until the last quarter. We were in a position where we had a shot for goal, missed it and then they went down the other end and kicked one. Kretiuk said.
“That was a two goal turnaround and it hurt us.
“From there they just went bang… we just had no sense of purpose in front of goal.”
Despite the magnitude of the loss, the Jets had only two less scoring shots than their opponents.
They were well led by Jack Walker, Sam Critchley and Mitchell Turnbull who all worked hard around the ground.
The result sees the Jets drop out of the TAC Cup top four, finishing the season in fifth with 10 wins and 7 losses.
They now turn their attention to an elimination final this weekend when they will most likely meet the Geelong Falcons.
“Finals are a whole new season. We played a good match against them a couple of weeks ago but now we will start from fresh. Things could have gone our way yesterday but they didn’t,” Kretiuk said.
“We have got a couple of guys who have been a bit down the last couple of weeks and we have got a couple of guys who are pushing for selection so that will come into consideration during the week.
“You will always have a few flat spots throughout the season but we just need to get back to the sort of football we were playing a couple of weeks ago.”
