Tara Murray
Caroline Springs’ finals hopes remain in its own hands in the Western Region Football League division 1.
Having had what coach Brian Lake describes as a ‘“rollercoaster’ season, the Lakers sit in fourth spot with four rounds remaining.
Spotswood is hot on their tails, only percentage outside the top four.
Lake said they know that there is still a lot of work to be done in the last month of the season.
“It has been a real rollercoaster season,” he said. “We’ve had some guys get opportunities at the [Northern] Bullants and we’ve had guys away like a lot of other clubs.
“Along with some injuries, it’s been such a rollercoaster season, but we are still in the finals hunt.”
Lake said offensively they had still been able to put the score on the board, but it was the defensive end where they were struggling.
He said not having continuity in the back half was one of those reasons.
“Defensively we’ve copped a number of changes and we haven’t had the continuity and synergy in the lines,” he said.
“We’ve been bringing in a lot of younger guys that are in different parts of their careers. Our ability to defence is not up to scratch.
“We have to tighten that up with the period to come and have a collective mindset.”
There was a division 1 wide bye on the weekend.
Lake said it was a chance to give some of the older guys a chance to freshen up. They would also get a couple of players back this week which would be a bonus.
“We will have a little bit of time out and reassess where we are before we refocus on the last month,” he said before the weekend.
“We can’t look towards finals. We have a long month of getting things right and getting the continuity as a team as well.
“We’ll get a couple of guys back who have been away and we’ve got a couple back the last few weeks.
“We need to get some games into them.”
The Lakers run home is Yarraville Seddon Eagles, Point Cook Centrals, Hoppers Crossing and Altona.
Lake said they can’t take any of those teams easy starting with the Eagles on Saturday.
“The evenness in the competition has been really good,” he said. “We need to try and win all our games in the run home.
“Yarraville has been fantastic and their VFL [Victorian Football League] players have been crucial to the success.
“They’ve had some guys who have been there for a few years now and have really stood up and it helps the senior players to have that support.
“They are a contested team with a fantastic run and have some good mids as well. It will be a tough one.”
In other matches, Altona will host Point Cook as both teams push for second, Hoppers Crossing plays Spotswood and Point Cook Centrals will play Werribee Districts.
