The Western Jets were under extreme pressure all over the ground against a rampant Calder Cannons. 80244 Picture: EMILY LANE
By LIAM TWOMEY
THE Western Jets suffered their biggest loss of the TAC Cup season on Saturday during a 112 point drubbing at the hands of the Calder Cannons.
With both sides sitting at one win and two losses coming in to the match, the stakes were high but it was the Cannons who proved far superior to their western region rivals.
Calder made the better start to the match, kicking two early goals but the Jets were able to hang in and keep the quarter time margin to a manageable 13 points.
However, the longer the match went the more the Cannons began to find their stride while turnovers and undisciplined passages of play from the Jets led to them paying the ultimate price.
Tempers flared in a number of heated exchanges during the second quarter but when Calder opened up a 38 point half time lead the sting went out of the Jets’ fight.
Sixteen second half goals to the Cannons sealed the 24.14 (158) to 6.10 (46) win.
Western Jets’ coach Steve Kretiuk was disappointed with the effort of his playing group after the Jets didn’t have one player on the ground win their position. “They (Calder) were really good. They were ferocious at the contest and just left us flatfooted,” he said. “Some of the players just aren’t resilient. We are happy to take the accolades…but all of a sudden the chips down and who’s going to stand up. Looking over the board we didn’t have one positional win which is disappointing so we deserved what we got. We will put it behind us.
“The game before the break I thought we were really good in the contest and we worked hard around the ground. We used the ball quite well. Today we were on the back foot early and we were maybe a bit intimidated with the way they went about their footy.”
The blowout is the second huge loss this season for the Jets who lost by 51 points in round two against the Oakleigh Chargers.
Kretiuk said his team needed to improve on its consistency if they wanted to be competitive at TAC Cup level.
“What we can’t have is ups and downs each week. We need consistency with output and players have got to learn that when they rock up to play TAC Cup footy you’ve got to be 100 per cent committed,” he said.
“You can’t come and give efforts like that because it is just unacceptable. We will be looking towards the players. As a coach we can do a video review, we can talk about it but at the end of the day it is up to those guys. We will look at who is going to play next week and who is going to put their hand up.”
The Jets will look to bounce back against the Dandenong Stingrays this week.
