By Matt Fotia
Ringwood coach Brett Rowe says there is absolutely no reason for his Redbacks side to get complacent during their 2021 campaign, stating that his side is yet to achieve anything worth being complacent about.
The Redbacks sit atop the Division Two ladder after the first seven rounds, with a 6-1 record and healthy percentage of 176, following a convincing win over 2018 premiers Boronia to the tune of 30 points, 9.15(69) to 5.9(39) on the Hawks home deck.
The 2019 minor premier got their work done early, jumping out to a 19 point lead in the first quarter before hammering home their advantage in the second and third terms to lead by an unassailable 38 points at the last change. Declan Hill and Charlie George booted two majors apiece whilst Daniel Jordanov and Mitchell Jackson were amongst the best.
The win caps off an impressive month for the Redbacks with three of their four consecutive wins coming over fellow premiership contenders The Basin, South Belgrave and the aforementioned Boronia.
Rowe says that their Round Three loss to local rivals Heathmont, where they faded badly to hand the young Jets their first win of the season, has been the main catalyst for their stand out performances across the past month.
“We weren’t happy with that Heathmont performance as a collective and knew we had some tough games coming up and had to start playing a bit better footy and set ourselves for this three week block, so to come away with those three wins was just what we wanted,”
“They’ve got some good young talent and a bit of speed and the same with The Basin, they’ve added some speed on the outside now, so you’ve got to close them down as quickly as possible.”
From the outside Division Two seems to be a division of two halves, with the top five (Ringwood, The Basin, Heathmont, South Belgrave and Boronia) on another level to the bottom three of Mulgrave, Knox and Templestowe.
But Rowe says the scoreboard can be misleading, stating that the bottom three sides have been more than competitive in 2021.
“When we played Knox and Mulgrave, they were more than competitive, you could see what they were trying to put out on the park, so I think if you drop your bundle at any stage (in this division) any team will take full advantage of it.”
Ringwood have been the Division’s benchmark since 2018, especially when it comes to the Home and Away season, and had built their gameplan off the Richmond blue print, with a lot of their scores coming from turnovers due to their high pressure on the ball carrier and strong set up behind the ball.
Rowe says this remains their plan of attack in 2021, but additions at both ends of the ground – Trent Farmer up forward, Tim Jones down back – will help take their game to another level.
“We’re still based around our pressure, especially with our small forwards,”
“Obviously now we’ve got a few more targets to kick to, which has been a huge benefit to us, so if we can get it right up the ground, which we have the last few weeks, it gives us plenty of chances to score.”
“We wouldn’t be on this streak of winning without our back six, they’re so organised and well led by Scotty Laing – who I think is one of the most underrated defenders in the competition – and they all complement each other,”
“Gaining Tim Jones was a huge benefit this year as well, he helps set up the defence as well and gives good leadership down there.”
“People like Tim Waack as well, go well under the radar, plays full back, gets the big jobs and gets it done.”
Having already seen what the rest of the division has to offer this year, it would be easy for players to slip into cruise control against some of the lesser sides (on paper) in the competition, but Rowe says his players are nowhere near earning that right.
“We’ve got no right to be complacent, we still haven’t achieved anything.”