WESTERN Jets have reached a fork in the road in what is turning into an enthralling TAC Cup season for the western suburbs club.
The Jets have been in winning positions in each of their past three games, only to fail to seal the deal.
As a result, they tumbled out of the top eight, and will enter Saturday morning’s crucial match with Murray Bushrangers in a must-win frame of mind.
“Having lost three games, where in the last quarter we’ve been even or in front late, certainly made the guys feel they’re playing really good competitive footy,” Jets coach Torin Baker told the Weekly.
“They’re certainly disappointed they haven’t been able to close out any of those three games like they were able to do earlier in the year.
“The guys are really determined to change that and get more rewards for their efforts.”
Every game the Jets have played has been close. The greatest final margin either way is 23 points, back in a round one loss to Sandringham Dragons.
When Baker took over the Jets he asked his players for competitiveness and effort every time they set foot on the field.
The first-year coach has received just that and it is allowing a team laden with bottom-age players to remain competitive until late in games. “That was the thing I stressed to the group at the start of the year and each week from there,’’ Baker said.
“By and large, the group has certainly done that.”
The Jets’ strong point has been its ability to score.
It is averaging 88 points per game, second only to the Eastern Ranges.
“We’ve got a number of different options in terms of our goalscoring,’’ Baker said, alluding to Mitch Norton (19 goals), James Sicily (12) and Harrison King (eight).
“We’ve worked really hard on our ball movement.
“We tend to be pretty efficient going forward, which has been a real positive for the group.”
As heavy scoring as the Jets have been, they have also been known to leak a lot of goals at the other end.
They are the most scored against side in the competition during the first seven rounds.
“We’ve identified that we’ve got some areas to work on defensively,” Baker said.
“We need to get our tackle numbers up and we need to be a better team in transition.
“That’s part of development and that’s what the focus has been on in the past month.”
