By Ryan Long
After seven losses in a row, the Templestowe Dockers have finally broken the drought, recording their first win of the 2021 season with a four-point victory over Mulgrave.
The Dockers held on in a thriller, despite a late last quarter comeback by the Lions that ultimately fell short, 12.10. (82) to 13.8. (86).
It was their highest score of the year and first taste of victory since Round 18 of the 2019 season. Matthew Zukiewicz continued his impressive recent form, booting four majors.
Templestowe Coach Craig De Corsey was pleased to see some reward for his young players effort, who fought hard for the full four quarters, after their encounter with Mulgrave earlier this season in Round Three saw they lose by a disappointing 54 points.
“The last time we played them, we were level at half time and had a really poor third quarter,” said De Corsey on EFNL Sunday.
“We were always confident if we could bridge that gap between our worst football and our best across a four-quarter game, we could be in with a chance.”
After the Lions got out to an early lead at quarter time, Templestowe clawed their way back to level the scores at Half Time before a five-goal third quarter that helped set up the win.
Throughout the 2021 season, the Dockers have averaged just two goals in second halves, a clear concern for the coaching staff. To have a six goal second half and hold off the fast-finishing Lions is a massive sign of improvement that De Corsey has been looking to see.
“The challenge to us was that we’ve been blown away in last halves so it was put to the group that it was a really good opportunity for us to go level into half time and to have a really strong second half and see if we could be close enough at three-quarter time to challenge for the win.”
It’s been a tough season for the Dockers who have been impacted by Covid-19 more than most other clubs. Many of the team’s more experienced players on their list returned to Perth during the outbreak. Due to this, the current team looks a lot different with an injection of youth.
The playing list that had competed in four different finals series since 2014 is all but gone, creating the difficult challenge of a full-rebuild.
“Looking at yesterday, I think we had four players out of the group play in our last win in 2019. On average, I think we’ve had six players this year that have played in the seniors in 2019 so it’s been a huge shift, one that’s been taken out of our hands by the Covid situation,”
“We are rebuilding from the ground up, most of our list is under 23 years old so we’ve really focused on that, fast track them as much as we can and build that core list of players that can take us into the future.”
For a young side that was giving up an average of 111 points per game before this weekend’s victory, it’s difficult to keep morale high on a weekly basis. The coaching staff have decided to keep players focused on the little wins during matches rather than the final scoreboard each weekend.
“We’ve tried to simplify it into not looking at the scoreboard every week and try and have wins within that game, no matter who we’re playing.”
“Sort of break down the game into different facets, if we can have some KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) during that game that we can try and hit, it takes away the scoreboard a bit. We don’t have to worry about wins and losses as much, we’re more worried about the growth of the group,”
“We’ve still got to be in the game with certain challenges in our own group and how we can grow as individuals and as a team.”
Templestowe have an opportunity to make it two wins in a row as they begin preparing for their clash against Knox on their home deck. Another win would see Templestowe move past the Falcons and into seventh position on the Division Two ladder.
De Corsey is confident that if the young Dockers can play some consistent football and not go missing in quarters that they’ll be able to find themselves on the winners’ list once more.
“Sometimes you just need that result to show the players that we’re on the right path and if they do put in the effort, they will get the reward,”
“It’s just great to get that monkey off the back and hopefully that gives them a bit of belief for the remainder of the season and that if we put the work in, hopefully, we can get another result.”