By Brad KingsburyBERWICK coach Ronnie Burns boiled after the Wickers were meekly pushed aside in the second half of Saturday’s clash with Pakenham, losing any hope of a 2006 finals’ berth.
Burns gave his players a bloodchilling blast in front of supporters and officials immediately after the 80point drubbing and put all senior players on notice.
He singled out his talentladen attack, led by Ryan Donaldson and George Gorozidis, for particular criticism, but told the entire group that if he coached the side in 2007, he was prepared to clear any player who did not want to follow his rules, regardless of reputation.
“A lot of players rate themselves in this place and walk down the street in Berwick with their chests puffed out after beating ordinary opposition,” he seethed.
“When they come up against good sides they get found out.”
Several witnesses suggested that Burns was too hard on his young team, however the blast was justified by the Wickers’ seemingly disinterested secondhalf effort in the crucial match, after trailing the league leaders by only four points at halftime.
Despite being without injured playmaker Gavin McLean, the Wickers were rated a good chance of upsetting the Lions after downing Narre Warren the week before.
Pakenham had other ideas however and started the game on song, with coach Michael Holland and his midfield general Lincoln Withers giving the Lions attack, led by Simon Ponter, plenty of the football, resulting in seven firstterm goals to Berwick’s two.
However the momentum shifted in the second quarter with Burns, Chris Mizzi and Andrew Tuck leading a counter attack that saw the deficit reduced to only four points at the main break, with both sides in full attack mode.
Holland said they started kicking wide and to packs and then started running.
“When Berwick runs they can make you look stupid and it became a bit of a shootout at the end of the second quarter going goalforgoal. It was hot football but it couldn’t last,” he said.
With 22 goals on the scoreboard at halftime, the scene was set for a similar style second half, but Pakenham decided to manup and reverted to its successful, workmanlike football style that revolves around accountability.
The ploy worked perfectly for Holland, with the Lions adding seven goals to three and breaking Berwick’s defence down with pinpoint delivery.
“The boys changed the way they were playing,” he said.
“We rely on our run from defence and our run through the midfield. Because we haven’t got a big power forward we rely on players like Ponter, (Nathan) Lieshout and (Daniel) Fry to lead hard up the ground. They’re not going to get beaten very often when the ball is out in front of them.”
That prediction was proved true in the third and fourth quarters with the trio sharing the responsibility of kicking goals and finishing the day with 15 of the Lions 26 majors between them.
The final quarter was all Pakenham as it moved into demolition mode and scored another eight goals to Berwick’s two points.
The final siren brought relief to the longsuffering Wickers supporters, but left Burns and his coaching panel scratching their heads after the visitors stopped running and appeared to accept defeat well before the game was over.
Burns launched into his players after the game and said the inability to lift when challenged was symptomatic of a lax attitude to training by too many of the senior group.
Gorozidis was the Wickers’ main avenue to goal and ended the day with five majors, while Chris Kickett was his main support act with four.
Pakenham had winners on every line and players like Troy Willis, Beau Wheeler, Jared Goldsack and Justin Sutherland were among the best of a good bunch. Holland kept the superb victory in perspective afterwards, but did concede that his side was playing very well and continued to rise to the occasion.
“We had that selfbelief to take our game to a new level when challenged and that was very pleasing,” he said.
“I said at threequarter time that if we could get the first two or three goals they would probably drop away and that was the case and another pleasing part of it was that we kept going. We’ve got a little bit of killer instinct there this year.
“We were pathetic at training last week, but it’s how you play on game days really. Tuesday night was our worst training for the year.”
The Lions are now entrenched in top position on the ladder after last weekend, but Holland issued a warning to his players that premierships were not won in July and that there was still significant work to be done before the finals.
