By: Tash Gunawardana
Third-placed Coldstream handed top-of-the-table East Burwood its first loss of the season, with a 22-point victory at Coldstream Reserve last Saturday.
In a solid final term, Coldstream piled on four goals to two to help pull off the unthinkable, with Anthony Faulker, Brad Batten-Leitch and Tyson McKenzie (pictured below) the standouts on the day, combining for six majors.
Senior coach Chad Rogers spoke to EFL Sunday after his side’s triumph win.
Last time the two sides met, Coldstream went down to East Burwood by 38 points at East Burwood Reserve.
“We were probably trying to be cute with our ball use going out of our backline and trying to take off a bit more than we could chew (in Round 5),” Rogers said.
“We have been working on being a bit safer, switching the ball a bit more often and using the width of the ground and using the ball a bit safer out of the back half and then better going forward.
“It was pleasing (on Saturday) with that.”
Coldstream will clash with Fairpark in a few weeks time and the match could go down as the one to decide which team will be given a finals double chance.
The Cougars are in fine form having won six consecutive matches, and heading into the last month of the season, will be boosted with the returns of Mitch Edmonds and Austin McInerney this week.
Meanwhile, Cam Shield played his first game back for the club on the weekend, since returning from injury.
“It was a strange game and I said to the boys at half time believe that you are good enough, because it was a really flat first half,” Rogers said.
“They started to believe in themselves that they are good enough and started taking it up to them the brand that we want to play, which was pleasing.
“We understand that they had a few players out, key personnel, but so did we, so both sides will be better in the long run.”
Coldstream takes on the sixth-placed Forest Hill at Forest Hill Reserve this Saturday.