By Tim Doutré
ANOTHER second-half comeback gave Williamstown its fifth win of the VFL season in round six on Saturday.
The Seagulls, showing shades of last week’s fightback against Werribee, knocked off Coburg, after a slow start, 20.18 (138) to 11.15 (81).
The Seagulls, on Coburg’s home deck, were shell-shocked early in midfielder Ben Jolley’s 100th game.
The home side ran away to a 31-point lead thanks to a six-goal opening term.
It is not a massive concern at this stage for Williamstown coach Peter German but he did note the slight trend.
“It was hard-fought, we didn’t get off to a good start again,” he said. “We are certainly still not pleased with the way we are going about our whole four quarters of footy. (It is a) mental preparation application concern that we have to try and address but after half-time the boys lifted their rate. We can’t deny the fact that we haven’t been starting well so we spoke about it at length for probably 20 minutes after the game to try and find the root of the problem and take it from there.”
The first term proved to be the home side’s best with Williamstown having a lot of the ball in the second term but registering a disappointing 2.7 before taking control in the third.
The visitors put on an incredible 11 goals in the premiership quarter to steal away to a seven-goal lead.
“We just went back to good old-fashioned attacking the ball hard and doing all the basics right,” German said. “We started working around the clearances and our tackling, just better ball use.”
Six final term majors and the game was sealed, keeping the Seagulls in a familiar top-two position. Young ruckman Jordan Roughead impressed after returning to the VFL side from the Western Bulldogs to make away for Will Minson.
“Roughead was good in the ruck. He has come a long way, I think, last year to this year. He rucked against two big tall blokes from Coburg.
“In the second half he really gave the players a good look. At the stoppages he was pretty instrumental in the second half so you would think he will keep the pressure on (the Bulldogs selectors).”
In what German described as a team performance, Matthew Grossman was a stand-out in defence. Western Bulldogs’ Brodie Moles (three goals) and rookies Andrew Hooper (two) and Matthew Panos (two) were also performers although all three lifted in the second half.
Matt Little strapped on his well-worn kicking boots to nail five goals for the match taking his tally to 26 for the season.
The VFL has a break for the State representative round. The Seagulls will look to the following Saturday’s game against Box Hill Hawks which should give Bulldogs rookie Lukas Markovic a chance to line up against the side which he captained last season.
