Western Jets was delivered the knockout blow to its TAC Cup finals hopes.
The Jets needed to beat Gippsland Power to stay alive in the race for the top eight, but came up short by 16 points at Morwell Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
“We just couldn’t get the job done today,” Jets coach Torin Baker said.
“I know the players are disappointed, I know they were keen on it [making a late run to the finals].”
It was the Western Jets’ game to lose at three-quarter time.
The Jets had controlled most of the first half and still held a 12-point lead entering the last change.
Gippsland turned it on when it counted, piling on five goals to nil in the last term, leaving the Jets to rue a host of missed opportunities when they had the game on their own terms.
“We put ourselves in a good position,” Baker said. “We certainly dominated the first quarter and a half, but we wasted some forward entries and didn’t put the score on the board at times.
“Gippsland were fantastic in the last quarter, really had a crack and dominated the contested ball and clearances and just willed their way to win.”
When the Western Jets had the ascendancy, it was coming mainly through its midfield dominance.
Lachlan Fogarty led from the front, displaying the form that has the experts talking up his chances of being a potential first round choice at this year’s draft.
Jaden Rice and Nick Stuhldreier had a big impact at the coal face.
Josh Mould, Buku Khamis and Stefan Radovanovic were also influential with their defensive work and rebound out of the back half. Khamis took four intercept marks in the first quarter alone.
But the Western Jets could not sustain their effort across four quarters.
For all their efforts, they could only manage 6.15, with Zak Butters the only multiple goalkicker with two.
“There’s effort and execution, we had really solid effort, we had good pressure around the ball and were good with some of our method, but just our execution probably in that first half meant we didn’t have enough score on the board,” Baker said.
Western Jets will face arch rivals Calder Cannons at Rams Arena in Craigieburn on Saturday morning.
