THE Western Jets’ mid-season revival has continued in the TAC Cup following a nail-biting two-point win over the Murray Bushrangers.
After falling behind early in the contest, the Jets hit back with a dominating second quarter to take a one-point lead into half-time.
From there nothing could separate the two sides in a seesawing match until a late goal from Josh Bench sealed the win for Western 8.14 (62) to 9.6 (60).
Jets’ coach Steve Kretiuk was rapt to come away with the close win against good opposition.
“It was a pretty tough game all day. With the state the ground was in, it was very wet underfoot with a lot of surface water on it and that turned it into a bit of a slogfest for the majority of the day even though it was really good conditions,” Kretiuk said.
“We had a bit of a chat about things at quarter-time in terms of what we weren’t doing. I thought we needed to work a bit harder at the contest and I thought we were a bit flat.
“They are a very good side and I thought we just worked a lot harder defensively when they had the footy after quarter-time. We were able to keep them in our third or our half of the ground a fair bit longer than in that first quarter.”
Jets’ captain Ashlin Brown is officially his side’s Mr Fix It after adding another string to his bow against the Bushrangers. Brown has spent time as both a defender and a forward this year but played one of his best games of the season in the midfield on Saturday.
“Ash played four quarters in the middle for the first time ever,” Kretiuk said.
“We have toyed with him playing in there for a quarter or so here and there but obviously he is the key to our forward line.
“He really led from the front this week playing in there. He showed that urgency that when things aren’t going well he will find a way and that’s really what you want from the captain. His improvement as a leader has been outstanding over the past 12 months.”
The weekend’s victory is the fourth for the Jets in the last five weeks and has reignited the club’s finals aspirations.
Currently the Jets are just one game outside the top eight and just two games outside the top four.
“We are just trying to build that momentum and finish the season on a really high note and then see what happens in the back end of the year. Our aim is just to play more consistent footy and play our brand more and I thought we did that for three quarters yesterday.”
