A Close Loss To The Seagulls For The Seniors

It was a tight game for the Box Hill Hawks Seniors on Saturday but they couldn’t quite get over the line, going down to Williamstown by 10 points.

The boys got off to a good start, booting the first two goals of the match but Williamstown took the lead 20 minutes in and didn’t let it go.

Trailing by 10 points at the start of the second quarter the Seagulls had an answer for every goal the boys kicked, keeping the margins to 11 points at the half time break.

Williamstown kept numbers up around the ball all day and really stifled the Hawks ball movement forcing turnover after turnover and penetrating the Hawks defence. To the Hawks back six credit, they managed to limit the seagulls scoring chances and keeping Box Hill in the game on the scoreboard.

Kade Stewart led the way with five tackles for the quarter, Sam Switkowski and Teia Miles with four, it was this tackle pressure that made it difficult for Williamstown to move the ball cleanly inside their forward 50.

It was the third quarter that saw the seagulls kick away and extend their lead to 25 points despite the desperate efforts of the Box Hill boys leading the tackle count for the quarter 21 to 10. To Williamstown’s credit they managed to keep Box Hill to one goal in the third term, kicking three themselves in what would ultimately be a telling factor.

Boxhillhawks.com.au caught up with Brendon Whitecross to speak about this lapse late in the game.

‘It felt like we were 10 goals down at three quarter time when in reality, it was four so we just kept our heads cool and took on the rest of the game.’

‘We tend start the game really well and get ourselves in the contest early but we drop away in patches and then come back for a fight but drop away again.’

‘In the end they had thirteen goals but eleven of them came off our mistakes, if you cut that in half then we are in the game. The biggest thing for us moving forward is to really work on getting that consistent performance as a team but also making sure that as individuals that we aren’t dropping off.’

Fighting back in the last term, the boy’s managed to close the gap to 10 points but it was too little too late with Williamstown taking home the four points.

Next Saturday we see Box Hill take on Essendon at Windy Hill with the first bounce set to be at 11:00am the boys will be on the hunt for a win.

SCORES

BOX HILL                     3.0 7.2 8.4 12.8 (80)

WILLIAMSTOWN        4.4 8.7 11.9 13.12 (90)

GOALS

BOX HILL                     S. Switkowski 3, T. Miles 2, J. Summers 2, K. Stewart 2, T. O’Brien, S. Iles D. Willsmore

WILLIAMSTOWN        J. Owen 3, A. Anastasio 2, D. Conway 2, S. Dunell, J. Dorgan, A.

Cordy, W. Wheeler, B. Bewley, L. Masters

BESTS

BOX HILL                     B. Whitecross, S. Switkowski, A. Litherland, K. Lovell, D. Mirra, T. Miles

WILLIAMSTOWN        W. Wheeler, N. Meese, J. Johnstone, C. Hislop, M. Gibbons, A. Anastasio

 

Photo: Jenny Owens Photography