West Coast Cowan have proven they will be anything but easy-beats in their return to the top grade, pushing reigning Premiers North Beach all the way before going down by 27 points at City Beach Oval on Saturday.
Only a poor third quarter kept the Coasters from pulling even closer, as North Beach booted 4.5 to a solitary behind to open up a commanding 42 point lead at the final break.
Running with a strong breeze in the first term, North Beach controlled the clearances and were effective going forward, booting four goals. West Coast pinched two goals against the wind to keep the margin to just 14 points at the first break.
The second term was more even across the board, with both sides moving the ball into their forward lines efficiently in kicking four goals each. Beach maintained their 14 point advantage as the teams hit the sheds at half time.
It was moving day for the Premiers in the third quarter, as they shut-down West Coast’s run and forced key errors. The only complaint the ‘other’ Tigers coaching staff could have had was that their kicking for goal left a bit to be desired.
Cowan showed heart in the final term, bursting out of the blocks with the first three goals to give the faithful fans some hope of a miracle comeback. Unfortunately early injury and fatigue took its toll in the final 15 minutes, and goals from the visitors at crucial stages halted WCC’s momentum, and enabled them to run out winners by 27 points.
West Coast shared the scoring duties, with three players kicking two each while four more added a goal apiece.
Coach Tom Wagner was impressed with the standard of footy his side played in its return to A Grade, noting there were many positives to take from the loss.
“We let ourselves down in the third quarter by repeating errors and allowing our opposition to dictate the momentum of the game. We did attend to this at three quarter time for a much improved effort in the final term. We had a number of 1st gamers, and three 2007 colts taking part, and they will all be better for the run” Wagner said.
“North Beach have been the competition yardstick for 10 years, and while many who have not encountered our team before will be saying that 27 points is a positive result, we had our chances to set up a win, and failed to capitalise. We can’t get complacent now and think that next week’s game against Scarborough will require anything less than our very best. I hate the term ‘honourable loss’ and we will be doing everything in our power to rectify the deficiencies in our game on the weekend and ensure that we get our season off and running against Scarborough. There are a number of players from the weekends reserve team who were very close to selection against North Beach and after solid showings on the weekend those players will have every opportunity to prove themselves ready for selection this week.”
West Coast Cowan | 2.0 | 6.1 | 6.2 | 10.5 | 65 |
North Beach | 4.2 | 8.3 | 12.8 | 14.8 | 92 |
Goals: C. Johnson, Griffiths, Roberts 2, Stringer, J. Johnson, Kelly, Palmer 1.
