We Really Did Learn From The Port Game

[damienc]

It is always great to get a win against quality opposition.

It is always great to win against the West Coast because we so rarely do.

But what I really like about getting it done today was that we actually learned something from last week.

The coach said we needed to learn from falling to the Power. We needed to learn and to take stock. And even though it was painful, the game was a positive lesson on how to properly close out a close one.

Today we got that same opportunity and we took it.

What is really pleasing, we never let them get away from us. At one point West Coast jumped out to a 22 point lead.

In the past a lead like that would be a bridge too far for us against a quality side. That lead would have got bigger as the game wore on.

But today that didn’t happen. We went after them, we tackled, we brought sustained pressure to bear.

We kicked straight for a change. How good was that to see? Especially Billings nailing a clutch goal.

Jack Steele played his best game for us. Koby Stevens was fantastic in the last quarter and for once we didn’t have to rely on our usual midfield stalwarts in Jack Stevens and Seb Ross. Today, both of those players were overshadowed by our youth and/or new players.

There was a lot to like about this win perhaps more to like than the victories against the Giants and Richmond. This was a win full of character. We showed a bit today and the players deserve our congratulations.

So what does it mean for the rest of 2017? Are we still in with a chance? I am sorely tempted to answer both of those questions, but I’m not going to.

We have 10 wins so far, some of them against top quality opposition, and 9 losses, some of them devastating and enormously disappointing.

Good teams learn something from the wins and even more from the losses.

The players are the only people who can answer the questions about season 2017 for all of us. Every week from now on they are going to answer those questions.

The Bulldogs proved last year that anything is possible. The totally random and unexpected nature of this season shows that anything is possible.

I liked how we went about it today.

Am I saying that we can be like the Bulldogs were in 2016? I wish we could. But I am not saying that at all.

However… this season has shown it's a mistake to make predictions of any kind. So many upsets.

I am not going to talk anything up on the back of this win. I’ve been too disappointed in the past to risk that. But we are still in with a fighting chance. And quite frankly I didn’t expect us to be. So it’s nice to be proved wrong.

If this team wants it badly enough, anything is possible and anything could happen.

The pessimist inside me says I don’t know if the players do want it badly enough. I guess we’ll find out in the next few weeks.

[Con Gorozidis]

The Woofers were on 13 wins after Rd 20. Finished the H & A on 15 wins.
So they were quite a bit ahead of us.

[saintspremiers]

This year's was never about winning the flag.

Is about scraping into the 8