By ADEM SARICAOGLU
EAST Keilor coach David Battistella is confident the Cougars can have a significant say in the Essendon District Football League Division Two finals series – provided they get there.
The Cougars went into their weekend clash at home to Roxburgh Park facing a horror run home that included each of their fellow top four contenders, but managed to get past the first hurdle with a hard-fought 11-point win.
Going into the clash third on the ladder against the fourth-placed Magpies, Battistella knew a win was vital for his young side.
This week’s short road trip to face Keilor Park – a team the Cougars have not yet beaten in 2013 – looms as their next major test, before they return home in the penultimate round to try and become just the second team of the year to beat a now seemingly-unbeatable Hillside outfit.
“When they say footy’s a game-to-game proposition, with where we are right now, it couldn’t be more true,” Battistella told Star.
“With young groups you can go up and down at any stage in a game or even (have) form fluctuations for a month of football, so we have to look at just this week and we have to aim at playing quarter by quarter and making sure that we play to the level of football that we know we can play.
“If we can do that then the ladder takes care of itself.”
Both of East Keilor’s encounters with Keilor Park to date were close affairs, while Hillside comfortably took care of the Cougars in rounds three and 10.
In all four of those games Battistella believes his side has shown promise, but with a raft of young players regularly taking the field each week, their lack of experience, for the most part, has been their downfall.
“We need to be better at playing each moment, and that’s a learning curve,” Battistella said.
“As each year goes on our guys will get better with just pure senior experience and that’s where I think Keilor Park get us, too, because they normally jump us early.
“We then get back in the game and then they seem to steady, and I think it’s just those little moments in a game that hurt us.
“Both Hillside and Keilor Park have quality experienced players, so we just need to be better at that.”
It was a low-scoring affair from start to finish at Overland Reserve on Saturday, but the Cougars managed to break away in the final term with three goals to Roxburgh Park’s one to escape with their most important win of the year to date.
