UNDERESTIMATE three-time premiers Narre Warren at your peril.
That was the message to the Casey Cardinia League after the young Magpies gave Berwick a 44-point reality check at the Edwin Flack Reserve on Saturday.
Many pundits looked at the list of pre-season departures at Fox Road and wrote the Magpies off as a genuine threat to continue their three-year dominance of the Casey Cardinia league in 2009.
That has been used as motivation by the remaining Magpie premiership players to great affect.
Saturday’s awesome display of running football, on a ground that the Magpies have made their own in recent seasons, was evidence that any rival with designs on a flag will have to dance with the Magpies first.
After a competitive first term in which Berwick wasted several scoring opportunities, the home side led by three points and patrons settled in for what appeared to be headed for a close contest.
The second term started in the same manner before potential disaster struck the Magpies when injuries ended the afternoon activities of key midfielders Michael Collins and Matthew Werner.
However, rather than go into their shells, the visitors took the initiative with youngsters Justin Marriott and first-gamer Dean Scanlon leading from the front, assisted by Clay Peresso and key forwards Steven Kidd and Brett Evans.
Narre Warren piled on seven unanswered goals in a withering burst that saw the shell-shocked Wickers head into the half-time break trailing by 42 points.
Both sides were a man short for the first 15 minutes of the third term as a result of yellow cards to Magpie captain Glenn Hamilton and Wicker centreman Darren Granger before the long break.
However, the Magpies maintained their momentum and put the issue beyond doubt to lead by nine goals at the final change.
The final term saw Narre Warren players visibly tire and key Berwick forwards David Van Diemen and Grant Noonan slipped away from their markers Nathan Brewster and Lee Boyle to score late goals, but it was too little too late for the home team.
Narre Warren coach Matthew Shinners credited his players’ preparation and commitment to the contest as the major factors in the victory.
“We were thereabouts in the first quarter, but after quarter-time I thought our body pressure and tackle pressure was really good and we were first in for the ball,” he said.
“I felt we adjusted better than the opposition.
“We had a really good week on the track and that does have an effect on the way you play in a game for sure.”
Shinners praised the games of running midfielder Daniel Boninkhof, who was named best afield, together with Boyle who shut down and ran off man-mountain Berwick spearhead Noonan, but added that the attitude of his players was a major reason for the success.
“We were probably two rotations down and mentally fatigued towards the end of the last quarter, but I couldn’t fault the players because we kept running and kept trying. We continued to take risks and I thought the opposition gave us the chance to do that today,” he said.
“Everyone’s recruited, but we haven’t and I just said to the group – ‘here’s an opportunity to gain some respect against a side that everyone is talking about’. That’s what they did.”
Berwick defender Rowan Pybus did a solid job restricting Evans to only three goals, while Jason Heath kept Kidd quiet in the second half, but the Wickers simply did not have enough contributors to match their opposition.
Youngsters Nathan Page, Dean Webb and Kris Fowler were among the home side’s best, but coach Glenn Dale said his players had been affected by Narre Warren’s pressure and it had been a perfect early season lesson that had to be heeded if they wanted to become genuine contenders this year.
“In the first quarter we had some chances and we didn’t put enough scoreboard pressure on them,” he said.
“We mucked around with it too much. The most disappointing thing about the game was our inability to handle the ball cleanly compared to the way they grabbed it with one motion and took it away.
“We were playing like millionaires at the start (of the season) and found out this week that you can’t do that against the top teams. We’ll work on handling pressure and there might be a few boys getting a wake-up call next week.”
Dale said that while he was obviously disappointed, he now knew a little more about the competition.
“They ran in numbers and used the ball really well. They knew how to play the ground, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
“Narre Warren is a good football team and we know a little bit more about what’s required to be successful after this game.”
