By Tara Murray
The monkey off the back for Green Gully in the National Premier League.
It had been a tough start to the season for the Cavaliers under David Chick without a win in their first five matches.
After some up and down performances, the Cavaliers were able to break through in round six against local rival Melbourne Knights with a stunning 3-0 win last weekend.
Chick said there was a relief to finally be on the board.
“It was nice,” he said. “It took a little longer than I would have hoped.
“The two weeks before the performances weren’t great. Sometimes you need to take a step back to take a step forward.
“The guys went out there and did a good job and to get the win, felt great.”
Chick said some early season injuries and availability hadn’t helped them early on as they tried to gel together as a side.
He said getting some experience back into the side had also helped.
From a coaching point of view, they worked on the mental game to try and get them going.
“We looked at how we wanted to feel and how we didn’t want to feel like we had let people down,” he said. “We hadn’t played the way we would have liked, so we looked at how we approached it mentally.”
Chick said they always knew that it would take some time to get everything to come together for the side this season with all the changes.
“It’s going to take time to get there, but we want to be there yesterday,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen quickly, it gets more difficult and it can affect your confidence.”
While happy to get that first win, Chick said it means little if they can’t continue to back that up.
“We had a couple of good games where we didn’t get the points,” he said. “We got back to having a good performance
“We need to keep doing it every week.”
The Cavaliers are set to return to action on Saturday night against Altona Magic.
Like the Cavaliers, the Magic enter the match with just one for the season.
“We are away the next five games while our ground is getting done,” he said. “
“It’s another challenge and they are difficult to beat. They are hard to score against and we want to get our first away win.”
