TERANG Mortlake coach Matthew Irving can feel the wheel turning following the Bloods’ stalled start to the season.
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Irving said the Bloods gained confidence from their breakthrough win against South Warrnambool last weekend after losses to top three challengers North Warrnambool Eagles and Koroit in the opening two rounds of the Hampden league campaign.
They play Cobden at D.C Farran Oval today.
“When we do what we’ve put in place and do it well, we’ll win games,” Irving said.
“The first two weeks were always going to be really tough playing two really good sides.
“We have to make sure we win games we should win.
“We could go into the (interleague) break with a bit of confidence.”
Irving said the vast spaces of D.C Farran Oval, which will unveil its new electronic scoreboard today, would make for an intriguing battle against the pacy Bombers.
He labelled the Mortlake ground’s condition “magic”.
“Cobden’s strengths are its young kids and ability to take the game on, so we have to be aware of that and be goal side and stop their run, similar to what we did last week against South,” Irving said.
Teenage forward Ben Finnerty comes into the Bloods’ line-up, giving them another avenue to goal.
“He’s a hard lead-up forward and plays wing as well,” Irving said.
“It’s a big ground at Mortlake so we’ll need dual centre half-forwards.”
Irving has called on his charges to find consistency, admitting it had eluded the bulk of the list in the early stages of the season.
“Jake Meade and Steve Staunton have been our two most consistent and they have played really well for four quarters in the three games,” he said.
“Nathan Jones is another one you know what you’re getting, week in, week out. He’s puts up a really good fight every week.”
Cobden co-coach Wayne Robertson said he was pleased with the Bombers’ application despite its 1-2 win-loss record.
“We’ve been OK. Our work rate, commitment and endeavour have been fantastic,” he said.
“Against Camperdown, after quarter-time we won the game. We were down 23 points and lost by 20, against Hamilton we were good and Warrnambool do that (run away from) many sides but they just got us on a weaker day.
“We have young players right across the board and we are not using that as an excuse, it just takes time.
“We’re happy with what we’re doing.”
justine.mc@fairfaxmedia.com.au