Werribee coach Scott West said his side’s performance against Coburg showed plenty of character. 79723 Picture: DAMIAN VISENTINI
By ADEM SARICAOGLU
WERRIBEE bounced back from its loss to Williamstown in the best possible way, thumping Coburg by a 51-point win on Saturday.
In a surprisingly high-scoring game, Werribee reached triple figures before three-quarter time and was able to keep Coburg at bay from start to finish.
Werribee jumped out of the blocks from the start and kicked six first quarter goals to establish a 20-point quarter-time lead.
With rain teeming down at the start of the second term, the Tigers continually found space across half forward to create scoring opportunities and expose holes in Coburg’s defence.
Leigh Harding was particularly impressive, goaling from 50 to extend the lead to 25 points halfway through the quarter.
Sam Wormald then nailed his second for the game, before Ben Ross again found space at half forward to extend Werribee’s lead to five goals just before halftime.
Coburg’s Luke McGuane and Werribee’s Nathan Grima both goaled soon after the main break before the momentum slowly shifted in Coburg’s favour. Three goals in seven minutes suddenly had Coburg back in the game, with its 32-point deficit whittled down to 14 by the 17-minute mark.
The slippery conditions provided for an error-riddled game, and during third term Werribee was committing most of the mistakes.
Despite this, Tigers hung on, and were eventually rewarded with a goal to steady the ship.
While golden opportunities went begging for Coburg, Werribee added another three goals to Coburg’s one and by three-quarter time had restored their five-goal buffer.
Coburg’s wayward goal-kicking continued into the last term, and they were eventually punished for it when Ben Warren slotted back-to-back goals to put the icing.
After the game, Werribee coach Scott West was pleased with his side’s effort to match Coburg at the contest.
“We were probably able to get away from them in the contested areas quite well and get it into a little bit of space – that really helped,” West said.
West denied his side dropped off after halftime, instead crediting Coburg with lifting its intensity. “To come from behind and win, you have to actually to take it up to (the opposition), and that would have been put on them to say you’ve got a half of footy to claw this back,” he said.
“There’s an intensity line in footy. They went above it a little bit (during the third quarter), and we probably stayed at that same level, so we had to match it, and in the end we did.
“They got a couple of goals, but we were able to withstand it and push on and end up being up by four and half goals at three-quarter time.
“From our point of view, that was real character.”
Warren ended with four goals for the day, while Will Sierakowski bagged three.
Two-goal efforts from Ross and Lachlan Hansen helped see them get named in Werribee’s best, alongside Harding, Warren and Ben Sharp.
Werribee 20.14 (134) d Coburg 12.11 (83)
Goals: Werribee: B. Warren 4, W. Sierakowski 3, L. Hansen 2, S. Wormald 2. Coburg: L. McGuane 4, D. Connors 3, T. Elton 2.
Best: Werribee: B. Ross, L. Hansen, L. Harding, B. Warren. Coburg: L. Masters, N. Thomas, W. Wheeler.
