By ADEM SARICAOGLU
KEILOR coach Mick McGuane has defended his side’s recent lack of form after the Blues sunk to their third successive loss and eighth of the season against Greenvale on Saturday.
There has been growing speculation within Essendon District Football League circles McGuane’s sixth year at the helm will be his last, as Keilor has battled to stay in contention with the Premier Division’s finals race.
The club has been hit with a number of key injuries and is yet to field a side that resembles its best 22, and McGuane remains adamant that is the root cause of Keilor’s disappointing showing to date.
“Those sorts of things clearly contribute to where you’re at as a footy club at times and they’re not excuses, they’re reasons,” McGuane said.
“Until media understand it, opposition understand it and external people understand it – maybe they’ve got false expectations of where our club’s at.”
Keilor’s finals hopes were dealt a fatal blow on Saturday as the Jets dished out a 79-point belting of the Blues at Keilor Recreation Reserve, which was a vastly different outcome than the clubs’ first meeting back in round two.
That day the Blues went down by 10 points but were arguably the better side, kicking seven more scoring shots than the Jets.
Eight of the 22 that faced Greenvale in round two were missing on Saturday, including front liners Christian Day, Jamie Papalia, Dylan Joyce and Ricky Marcy.While maintaining he remains unfazed about what those from outside the club think and speculate, McGuane made it clear his Blues should not be judged solely by the scoreboard.
“Before commenting on outcomes, talk about facts,” he said of the negative speculation.
“Look at the team that took the park that day (in round two) and take into account the team that took the park yesterday.
“We had four players in defence that started yesterday that have had 57 games between them playing against (Adam) McPhee, (Ben) Clifton, (Joe) Gazzo and (Travis) Jorgensen.
“That’s the harsh reality, so if people are going to cast dispersions, get the facts right and comment on the facts, rather than rubbish.”
McGuane’s young charges were competitive in the first quarter and only trailed Greenvale by five points at quarter time, but from there Keilor had a pretty ordinary day, giving up nine goals in the second term to be blown apart by the reigning premier.
“We were very good for the first 40 minutes and obviously with the amount of quality personnel we had out of the side, we exposed a couple of young kids,” McGuane said.
