It was take two for Williamstown, who suffered an agonising two-point loss for the second week running in the Victorian Football League.
To further compound the Seagulls’ heartache, both were against long-time foes.
Picture gallery: Williamstown v Werribee Tigers
The Seagulls were beaten at home by Port Melbourne and then went down 14.12 (96)-14.10 (94) against Werribee Tigers in the 1 v 2 blockbuster at Avalon Airport Oval on Sunday.
The latest loss saw the Seagulls fall to second on the ladder, with Werribee now in sole ownership of top spot.
More pressing for Seagulls coach Andy Collins is the inconsistent effort of a number of his players.
“My biggest concern is what is going on between some of the players’ ears,” he said.
“Players that were good last week were down this week, players that were down last week were good this week. It just shows again … a lot of the game is played between the ears.”
Williamstown came out of the gates quickly to lead by 13 points at quarter-time.
But that lead evaporated in the blink of an eye and they trailed by 15 at half-time to be chasing the Tigers’ tails from that point on.
A nail-biting last quarter went a long 36 minutes and time-on goals to Sam Dunell and Andrew Gallucci had the Seagulls within a point at the 31-minute mark.
But they couldn’t find another goal and when the siren went they were two points behind.
Adam Marcon, Mitch Banner and David Fahey were the standouts for the Seagulls.
Once again, the Gulls were unpredictable in attack, with 10 goal kickers. There were two goals apiece to Dunell, Gallucci, Anthony Anastasio and Jack Dorgan.
The Seagulls will be looking to soldier on for an important home game against Coburg at Burbank Oval on Sunday.
They don’t need extra motivation but they will get it with inspirational leader Ben Jolley playing his 200th VFL game.
The stalwart is revered at Morris Street.
“This week is a big occasion for us,” Collins said. “Firstly, the statistics, three-time best-and-fairest, he’s our captain and the longest-serving player in recent history at our footy club; they all look on him really positively.
“But when you talk about Ben, you talk about the quality of the person, then about the quality of the leader, then you talk about the football.”
Jolley is one of the hardest on-ballers going around the league.
The 29-year-old, who managed four games for Essendon in the big league, is one of the Seagulls’ most consistent players.
“He’s very level,” Collins said. “If he has a bad game, he gets 23 or 24 possessions, a good game around 35 possession.
“He’s very consistent and that shows the maturity and the quality of footballer he is.”
Meanwhile, Footscray is back in the winners’ circle after drubbing Geelong 17.13 (115)-8.5 (53) at Whitten Oval on Saturday.
The defending premiers will host second-last North Ballarat at Whitten Oval in an 11am game on Sunday before the AFL side plays Melbourne at the MCG at 3.20pm later that day.
