By Briana Kendirian
There was a collective sigh of relief from Ferntree Gully faithful on Saturday as they pulled out their first win of the year, beating Whitehorse by 43 points on their home patch.
Hoping to set a new tone for the second half of the 2022 season, senior coach Brent Kiker is confident that with the unity and teamwork his side have, they will be able to make a surprise comeback.
“We think we’ve played some good footy over the first half of the year, we’ve just let ourselves down at different moments during games,
“But we think we can finish off strong in the second half, so that’s our aim to win as many games as we can,
“I’ve been really impressed with how resilient we’ve been with the win-loss (record), the group could have dropped away but there was still a lot of belief there and the camaraderie and mateship is great at the club and I think that would put us in good sted for the second half of the year.”
The Eagles showed off their potential on the weekend, proving they may in fact be the team to watch out for rest of the season.
Kiker was proud of his side’s fight to remain in the lead all throughout the match on the weekend, withstanding Whitehorse’s pressure with an equal contribution from all members of the team.
“Whitehorse came back in the second quarter, and we withstood it and kicked a couple of late goals which I think gave the playing group a lot of confidence and from there we were pretty consistent for the rest of the match so that was very pleasing,
“We speak about plying our roles and I think it was one of those games where the whole 22 played their role,
“That enabled certain players such as Danny De leso, Mitch Tsirtsikos, Jack Flannery, and Kieran Gray to star, but the team just enabled them to play good footy because everyone played their role,
“We’ve been close quite a few times, so it was relief and a lot of satisfaction for the boys to be able to sing that song finally for the first time for the year.”
Although this is the Eagles first win of the season, most of their games have been losses of very close margins and while Kiker and the team continue to identify the improvements needed each week, the Eagles are aiming to keep a winning streak going.
“It’s been frustrating those narrow margins but in a lot of those games we would cost ourselves and we’ve identified that,
“We focused on being resilient to that and sort of holding and not going away from our game plan and sticking with it which we did on the weekend, which was pleasing,
“Every week we sort of find something else and tweak it, work on it and hopefully we’ve gotten the point now where we can start playing consistent footy within games.”
Kiker believes a major challenge Ferntree Gully have faced this season is the changes to the team with majority of the players being a much younger as the boy’s adapt to senior football.
“It’s been more of a personnel change, we’re a lot younger this year overall so it’s just been players adapting to senior football week in week out,
“It’s been a big transition as far as the playing list and I think when you have a youngish group there’s going to be inconsistencies within games,
“We think we have come a long way and a bit of luck here and there always helps as well.”
The Eagles are set for a rematch against Fairpark next week, a side they suffered a shock loss to in Round One.
“Fairpark were fantastic first round, they clearly were a better side, the one point was tight, but they were good all night,
“Where we’re positioned, we can’t be confident going into any game and all we can be is prepared and ready to go,
“Week to week we try come up with a few little things to stifle the opposition but it’s more about how you play,
“We will be full strength for the first time this year,
“We may have Luke Mccomb back and if not then for the Glen Waverley game,
“We’re really fit and healthy for the first time for the year so it’s exciting.”
