By LIAM TWOMEY
WERRIBEE fell 25 points short against reigning Victorian Football League premier Box Hill on Saturday.
Played at Box Hill City Oval, it was the Hawks that made the fast start to the match, kicking 5.3 in the opening quarter to take a 22-point lead into the first break.
From there Werribee was able to find its feet and began to slow Box Hill’s charge.
The two teams kicked five goals each across the next two quarters, with inaccuracy the only thing stopping Werribee from eating into the margin.
Despite finishing the match with an equal number of scoring shots, Werribee was unable to recover from the slow start to eventually fall 12.11 (83) to 7.16 (58).
“We had a fair bit of control early in the game and then we let them through for a couple of soft ones,” Werribee coach John Lamont said on the first quarter.
“We kicked 1.5 in the first quarter but I think there were three out on the full as well and two other shots that should have made it but didn’t.
“You look at the scores and it looks like they jumped us but it wasn’t really like that.
“From there we missed a few simple targets, dropped a few chest marks and we were just sort of nipping at their heals the whole day but couldn’t capitalise and make the most of our half chances.”
North Melbourne listed player Michael Firrito was named best-on-ground for the Tigers while Tim McGenniss and Jarred Moore were also solid throughout the afternoon.
For Box Hill, Ben Stratton and Ayden Kennedy were named best on ground.
“We took a lot of positives out of the game,” Lamont said.
“From my view point I don’t really look at who we were playing against. I look at how we were playing, if we were playing with the right discipline and how we want to play. I thought we did, we just made too many mistakes.”
Werribee will now turn its attention to round two when the Tigers will take on the Bendigo Gold at Avalon Airport Oval.
“In the early part of this week we will review what we have done and then we will hook into how Bendigo are going about it.
“They had a tough year in 2013 and they will no doubt have improved,” Lamont said.
