THERE was so much at stake for the coach of the Casey Cardinia league, Michael ‘Jock’ Holland, as his boys ran out for Saturday’s clash with the Bellarine at Simonds Stadium in Geelong. You see, to climb the VCFL rankings, no team can afford a slip-up, there’s no standing still – it’s either step up and move forward or drop back a cog – the Demons’ shot at a top-10 ranking would either take place next year… or at the very earliest they would have to wait until 2017 for a shot at the upper echelon. After a slow first quarter, the Demons rallied on country football’s biggest stage – Jock delighted as he spoke to the Gazette’s DAVID NAGEL after the match.
Jock, the commitment was there in the first quarter, but the quality of disposal let you down?
We were a bit shaky early; in terms of fumbling from blokes you never see fumble. That’s perceived pressure and playing with blokes you not used to, not being the one who wants to stuff up. All week we’ve been harping on kicking to that second line, but early on we were going that 20-metre kick, turning it over at half back and that’s where they got their run from. When we tidied that up and gave Holty and the boys a chance, one-on-one, we looked dangerous.
It’s a pretty simple instruction from a coach “to go longer”, but it just changed the whole look of the side after quarter time?
It gave us predictability, blokes like Troy McDermott and Dom (Paynter), it gave blokes like them the confidence to know where to go to, not running around thinking where’s it going next, they know where the ball’s going and can have an influence. Just kicking to that second line gave us structure after quarter time.
The midfielders struggled to take advantage of your ruck dominance in the first quarter; blokes like Steve O’Bryan and Michael Collins seemed to work that out at the break?
We were sort of feeling the opposition out, but also feeling ourselves out a bit to an extent. Kym (Jones) was good in the ruck, but for an 18-year-old like Jake Gains to do what he did, and really compete, was massive for us. He wasn’t overawed and nothing fazes him. Wadey (Matt Wade), Collo and Steve O’Bryan started to win the ball in the second quarter and get it to blokes like Josh Tonna and Dom on the outside.
Holty deserves the plaudits today but Kain Baskaya and Wadey were equally as good weren’t they?
I thought Kain and Holty were line ball as Best on Ground went and I thought Wadey was just behind them. When a bloke kicks eight, that’s how you win games of footy, but we could have been down a couple more goals in the first quarter if it wasn’t for Kain and the blokes down back.
It seems to have been a great campaign this one; the commitment from day one has been tremendous?
From the first night, it’s been terrific, having 33 blokes to the first training night and blokes turning up injured, I’ve never seen that even when we had the three leagues together. Maybe the league have got more on board, but the credit has to go to the players, they’ve jumped on board which makes it a hell of a lot easier on the coaches that’s for sure. Blokes like Dan and Tommy (O’Loughlin) and Shiner (Matt Shinners), they don’t just love footy, they love interleague footy which is great to have around as well.
