By Lance Jenkinson
Yarraville-Footscray coach Wayne Roberts could sense early into Saturday’s heavy defeat to Deer Park in Bowls Victoria premier division that his side was in trouble.
The Bulldogs were jumped out of the blocks, down in all rinks after five ends and playing catch-up against a strong side with intentions of going all the way this season.
“You could smell it in the air – we were in trouble after four or five ends,” Roberts said.
“We did fight our way back to get within about 10 … I thought, ‘We’ve stopped the bleeding’. But then they rallied again and we were never in it from halfway onwards.”
The final outcome was an emphatic 106-56 win to Deer Park, which scooped all 18 points from four winning rinks.
Deer Park also quite possibly settled the top four, with Roberts conceding his fifth-placed team – 26 points out of the top four with five games to go – faces an uphill task to break into the finals positions.
Photo Gallery: Deer Park vs Yarraville-Footscray
“We didn’t get a point, so that really hurts,” Roberts said. “We’ve not given up on the top four, but the odds are that we’re probably not going to make it.”
Roberts has been proud of Yarraville-Footscray this season and counts the heavy defeat as an aberration.
But like the heavy defeat to Melbourne in the first half of the season, a big loss can come back to bite.
“All our players wear the shirt with pride and every week we go out and try and do our best,” Roberts said. “Some days it works, some days it doesn’t.
“That’s probably been our biggest fault – we can come out and beat some top teams, but when we do come out and have a bad day, we really do have a bad day.”
Yarraville-Footscray has two weeks to lick its wounds. The Bulldogs will have a thorough review and Roberts has flagged changes for their next clash against Essendon.
“We’ll review it like we review all results, good and bad,” he said.
“We’ll sit down and have a look and try and tweak it and make it better.
“We’ll make some changes – a couple of sideways moves and we might drop a couple of players.
“We’ve got good players, good people, we’ll move on and give it our best shot in a fortnight’s time.”
Meanwhile, Altona will need a miracle to play finals after a nail-biting 82-80 loss to Bundoora RSL away on Saturday.
The A’s are a massive 46 points outside the top four with five rounds to go.
A’s stars Dane McKinnon, Nathan Wilson (men’s team) and Blaine Edwards (women’s team) will be in action this week for Victoria in a Test series against New South Wales on the Central Coast.
