By Matt Fotia
Balwyn coach Rodney Eade says that there will be a number of ‘unusual’ results in the Premier Division this season, after his sides six goal bounce back win over fellow finals rivals Blackburn at Morton Park on Saturday.
Enigma Charlie Haley booted four majors and big name recruit Jordan Lisle peppered the goals with 3.5 across the day whilst Paul Pattison, Thomas Freeman and Kyle Elliot were named the Tigers best as they ran out 36 point winners 15.12(102) to 9.12(66).
The win takes Balwyn back up to sixth on the ladder, just percentage behind the Burners and Norwood, and restores them to an even 2-2 ledger following their upset loss to Berwick at home last weekend, as they battle through some early season injury worries which has seen the club call upon their depth including some of their Under 19 stocks, with two of the clubs Under 19’s running out in the main game on Saturday.
“I suppose like a lot of sides, when you get injuries, you’re tested when it comes to covering them and we haven’t got a lot of depth, so when we got a couple back on the weekend it helped us,” Eade, who is currently in his third season at the club, said.
“We’ve had a couple of down games, where we could’ve won them, but then we’ve beaten both the grand finalists, which shows we’re not far away, it’s just about having that consistency.”
The win over Blackburn – the Burners second straight loss at home this season – was off the back of some aggressive forward pressure work from the Tigers, who created over half of their score from turnovers kicking 9.4 courtesy of Blackburn errors.
Eade suggests the Tigers could’ve been further ahead at the main break, with inaccurate goal kicking (9.9) keeping the 2019 grand finalists in with a sniff of a come from behind win.
“I thought our contested ball was good, I thought our pressure was good,”
“Our forward pressure was really good in the second and third quarters especially, we were able to stifle their run and keep the ball in our forward 50,”
“We should’ve nailed some goals to be further ahead at halftime, but we didn’t muck around with the ball, we got it in there a lot quicker.”
Whilst the boys from Cherry Road have suffered from inconsistency in 2021, one member of their side has been at the top of his game across the first month of Premier Division action in Paul Pattison.
Pattison is averaging 21.8 disposal per game to go with 7.3 clearances, 4.5 inside 50’s, 2.8 tackles and 109.8 PremierDataPoints. His 22 disposal, one goal game on the weekend was his best for the year according to Eade, who cited a more defensive focus from Pattison against the Burners.
“That was probably his (Pattison’s) best game (for the year), his defensive work was a lot better,”
“We haven’t been too far away – despite the losses – so our theme was just about tidying up the little things and Paul really took that on board,”
“He was trying to do too much, but on the weekend, he rectified that.”
The Tigers now turn their attention to ladder leaders South Croydon, who also bounced back from a loss in Round Three last weekend, and will more than likely have to tackle them without Thomas Freeman who starred on his return from Casey with 25 touches and four intercept marks.
Eade is hopeful that club legend Kris Pendlebury will be able to return to cover the gap left by Freeman, but is unsure on his injury timeline.
Eade sees the Dogs as the best team so far this season, in what he believes will be an extremely tight season, with a number of sides looking to step up break their way into September action once again, such as Noble Park – who beat the Dogs in Round Three – and Norwood – who defeated Balwyn in Round Two.
“To my mind they’ve (South Croydon) been the best team in the comp so far, so it’ll be a difficult game for us,”
“They’re a very good side, so from our point of view we’ll have a work cut out and will have to bring that work rate and intensity again.”
“I think it’s (the Premier Division) going to be a lot more even, there’s going to be a lot more results that don’t go the way that people think,”
“I think there’ll be seven or eight teams pushing for the final five,”
“It’s going to be a tight year, which is great.”
