POWER forward Nathan Thompson might have booted eight goals but it was not enough for the Werribee Tigers they lost by 59 points to Williamstown.
The Tigers took it right up to the Seagulls early and led by five points at quarter time but trailed by 16 at the main break. Williamstown booted 16 goals in the second half to snuff out any chances Werribee had.
Coach Simon Atkins said he was let down by the performance after two strong performances against Collingwood and Box Hill.
"It’s a bit disappointing with what we’ve been able to work as a group over the last couple of weeks. Our measurements are back to where we were four or five weeks ago. Under the challenge from the form team of the comp we just reverted back to a couple of our similar old ways."
Poor kicking for goal and poor entry into the forward line hurt the Tigers badly, Atkins said, labelling "overuse of the football" as the main cause for concern.
"We’ve got a dominant forward up there that kicked eight he probably could have kicked 15 today, given the chance, it was the only time we looked dangerous.
"We just overused the football and didn’t make the right decisions,"
The Tigers went into the second half a real chance at running over the second-placed Williamstown, but were unable to convert.
Atkins admitted he didn’t like "getting into shootouts", as the Tigers had one more scoring shot for the quarter, but kicked 3.8 to Williamstown’s 8.2.
"Of the eight points, five were running shots at goal and one was a set shot, all from within kicking distance,
"That conversion, that scoreboard pressure that we speak about, when we needed to we just didn’t step up."
However Atkins said there were positives to take away from it.
"Absolutely, even in the last quarter we thought if we could turn that around … all of a sudden you may give yourself a sniff.
They come out and kicked the first [in the final term] and we chased but the positives are we had 11 shots at goal from 15 inside 50s.
The usual suspects played well for the Tigers, with Greenwood at his hard-nosed best, and Thompson booting 8.4 from 12 kicks and six marks.
Michael Barlow again stamped himself on the game, surely beginning to catch the eyes of talent scouts.
"His form’s been outstanding so I would think AFL recruiters are looking at him, whether he gets recruited or not is not for me to say," Atkins said.
Leigh Adams continues to push for senior selection with another strong game, while Alan Obst and Flinn Chisholm were also good.
The Tigers were just unable to match it for the whole game with the likes of Wayde Skipper, who had 25 touches, 24 hitouts and four goals, and Brett Johnson who played well with 25 touches.
Werribee 4.2 6.3 9.11 14.12 96
Williamstown 3.3 8.7 16.9 24.11 155
Werribee: Goals - Thompson 8, Barlow 2, Bongetti, Greenwood, Adams, Gleeson. Best - Thompson, Adams, Greenwood, Chisholm, Barlow, Obst
Williamstown: Goals - Skipper 4, Little 4, Joyce 3, Rose 3, O'Keefe 2, Grant 2, Stack 2, Jolley, Cloke, Lynch, Everitt. Best - Skipper, Johnson, Cloke, Addison, Grant, Joyce
Last Modified on 07/07/2009 00:25