Spencer White kicked five goals for the Western Jets on Saturday in their win over the Oakleigh Chargers. 79072_01 Picture: EMILY LANE
By LIAM TWOMEY
THE Western Jets made it three victories in as many weeks after a crushing win over the Oakleigh Chargers in round 10 of the TAC Cup.
From the word go the Jets were in control of the match, booting three first quarter goals and stopping the Chargers from scoring to open up an 18 point lead going into the break.
Despite Oakleigh finally hitting the scoreboard in the second quarter, it did nothing to stop the dominance of the Jets who were able to increase their lead to 23 points at the main break.
From there the result was never in danger as Western sprinted away to an 81-point win in one of their most impressive performances of the season.
Jets’ coach Steve Kretiuk said he was pleased with the effort his players showed throughout the match.
“I thought the most important thing for the day was that we showed a fair bit of perseverance,” he said.
“To put in into context they had a fair few players out of their side with school footy and injury but I thought the players we put out certainly stuck to their guns.
“I think our intensity dropped off a little bit after the first quarter but we made a statement at three quarter time that we really wanted to raise the bar and start to win the contested possessions and I think that was the main reason why we kicked 10 goals in the last quarter.”
Spencer White provided a great target for the Jets’ midfielders and was able to kick five goals in the wet and blustery conditions.
He was well supported by Jake McKenzie who continued his good run of form and kicked two goals.
Around the ground Josh Bench and Billy Iles were the standouts winning a number of telling contests to keep the Jets in control of the match.
In total, 12 Jets’ players kicked goals in the 17.9 (111) to 4.6 (30) win.
“Ash Brown came in at three quarter time and said they (Chargers) were getting a bit rattled with the number of rotations and the different short of players who were rotating through our forward line,” Kretiuk said.
“We have quite a range of different players with a lot of different attributes. We’ve got some really small, quick and light players but we have also got some really strong bodied and good overhead players.”
The result propels Western back into finals contention with a match against the Dandenong Stingrays at Burbank Oval this week.
