WOORINEN claimed their seventh straight win and strengthened their top-three spot with a 76-point thrashing of Swan Hill on Saturday afternoon.
With the Tigers welcoming back nine separate premiership teams, including coach Marcus Demaria’s 2002 side, the club were keen to celebrate in style from the first bounce.
Swan Hill had other ideas and were able to stay with Woorinen for the first half, but ran out of legs after the main break as the Tigers took control with 10 goals to one in the second half.
Demaria was full of praise for his team’s second-half performance, while concerned by a trend of lacklustre first halves – especially the second quarters.
“We started off the game really well, but we seem to have these lulls in our second quarters – I feel like we sort of get on top early and then we take the foot off the pedal and the opposition come back and challenge us and then we sort of struggle a little bit once we’re challenged,” Demaria said.
“But once we settle ourselves and as the tone of the game progresses and the opposition’s pressure drops away, then it seems like were able to release the shackles and create a bit more run and drive and we’re able to score a bit easier.”
Xavier Moloney was moved into the midfield after spending the first half of the season playing predominantly in defence, in a clear move to get some more class and depth to help Swans prime mover Matthew Wade. The move paid dividends early, with Moloney turning back the clock in a powerful display.
Wade, too, was influential despite Woorinen’s and Demaria’s best efforts to curb his impact.
“We tried to restrict Wade’s impact by having Rob Miller and (Aaron Cadd) rotating on him, but a good player like him is almost impossible to stop – he just released himself forward a few times and kicked a few goals, so he managed that tag pretty well,” Demaria said.
But while Wade, Moloney and defenders Brendan Blackmore and Tom Holdstock proved problematic for the home side, they were no match for the depth of Woorinen, who slowly wore them down as the game progressed. Taylor Cameron and Josh Domaille were prominent through the centre of the ground for four quarters, while youngsters Robert Rush, Matthew King and Matthew Gardner posed significant headaches for the visitors.
But the move of defender Lachie Wright forward that changed the course of the game, according to Demaria. The young prodigy contributed four majors in the second-half onslaught.
“He started back but was swung forward – we moved him to centre half-forward and he gave us a real target through there with his ability to hit up at the footy, which made a real difference especially when we didn’t really have that through the first half,” Demaria said.
The Tigers will enjoy a couple of weeks off before resetting and taking on the all-conquering Kerang, while Swan Hill will look to reignite their season in a fortnight’s time when they face the injury-depleted Mallee Eagles.
VOTES
3 Votes Lachlan Wright (Woorinen)
2 Votes Taylor Cameron (Woorinen)
1 Votes Josh Domaille (Woorinen)
MATCH RESULTS
WOORINEN 5.4 7.8 12.11 17.17.119
SWAN HILL 3.1 5.2 5.4 6.7.43
GOALS – WOORINEN – Thomas Eltringham, Lachlan Wright 4, Adam Saunders 3, Lachlan Gardner 2, Taylor Cameron, Matthew King, Arnold Kirby, Regan Vesty 1.
SWAN HILL – Matthew Wade 3, Kallen Heslop, Tom Pontell, Tobias Thoolen 1.
BEST – WOORINEN – Lachlan Wright, Taylor Cameron, Josh Domaille, Robert Rush, Matthew King, Matthew Gardner.
SWAN HILL – Xavier Moloney, Matthew Wade, Brendan Blackmore, Tom Holdstock, Bradley Williamson, Tobias Thoolen.
