Spotswood endured its second loss in the space of three weeks by going down to Deer Park by 30 points on Saturday.
In a replay of last year’s Western Region Football League senior grand final, the Woodsmen were left to rue a slow start in which they failed to register a score in the opening term.
From there, the two sides remained relatively even across the next three quarters with the margin hovering between three and six goals.
But Spotswood was unable to recover from its poor start, eventually losing 12.8 (80) to 8.2 (50).
Spotswood coach Tom Langlands was disappointed to give Deer Park the early lead.
“It is never easy when you get off to a slow start,” Langlands said. “I thought their tackling pressure was better than ours. They probably had a bit more polish as well.”
“It was a wet day and all the Deer Park players were obviously more skilled than us.”
After playing for the Western Jets last season, David Iaccarino continued his impressive start to the season for Spotswood. The teenager was one of his club’s best players.
Up forward, Christian Elliott provided a good target and finished the match with four goals. But a number of uncharacteristic turnovers left Langlands unhappy.
“We turned the ball over with short kicks, which in senior footy, is not good enough,” he said.
“It was targets being missed by 10 metres. You can’t do that in senior footy.”
The Woodsmen will look to bounce back this week when they meet the struggling Yarraville-Seddon.