Nirranda co-coach Shane Threlfall knew that if his side stuck to the plan then the past wouldn’t come back to haunt the Blues against old foes Old Collegians.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Blues produced another fast start but managed to keep the Warriors away to secure a 11.7 (73) to 6.10 (46) victory and end Collegians’ unbeaten run on Saturday.
Threlfall was weary of the Warriors’ ability to storm back, but he had put plans in place to negate it.
“In the past when we have been in front of them and they have had a great capacity to work their way back into games and as soon as you take the foot off the pedal you're in trouble,” he said.
“The goal for us was to just maintain our intensity on them the whole game.”
The Blues mentor did lament his side slipping away from the plan in the last quarter and praised the Warriors for their relentless efforts until the final siren.
“They were still running a bit better than us in the last quarter,” he said.
“I thought we started boot banging it forward and picked up a few bad habits in that last quarter.
“We started to have too many guys running into the forward 50 and trying to kick goals instead of what we had done earlier and set up behind the ball and let our forwards do the job.”
The 27-point win was set up by the Blues’ ability to harass the Warriors and their flash and dare with ball in hand.
“We brought our pressure game today, we started with our team defence and that was a standout today,” Threlfall said. “We got in the right spots defensively and put a lot of pressure on them and generated some turnovers and then hurt them when we went forward after that.
“We have straightened up with the footy a little bit better than we have in the past few weeks and it can be high risk at times and it can look a little silly.
“But when it comes off it opens up the goal face for us and allows us to score more freely.”
Old Collegians coach Josh Reichman, who kicked four of the Warriors’ six goals, said he was happy with his side’s finish to the game, but rued the way the rest of the match played out.
“We had patches of the game where we were on top or at least breaking even, but we couldn't make use of some of our opportunities,” he said.
“But we will take that into account the next time we play them and we can put in 120 minutes of effort.”
Dylan Lees was Nirranda’s best player, while the returning Mitch Couch made a solid contribution off the half-back line in his first senior game of the year.