Footscray Edgewater coach Steve Chapman was fuming on Saturday.
The Bulldogs left a lot to be desired in their 35-run loss in a one-day match to Kingston Hawthorn at Walter Galt Reserve and Chapman made his feelings known to players post-game.
“I wasn’t too shy in letting the lads know that I was disappointed for the first time in a long time,” Chapman told Star Weekly. “It wasn’t a good experience and I didn’t like it.”
What irked Chapman most was his players’ inability to get even close to reaching their potential. There was inconsistency of performance in all facets of play.
Despite venting his frustration, Chapman is backing his team to turn it around against Prahran in the country round in Port Fairy on Saturday.
“I could be sitting here next week talking about another good win for us,” Chapman said.
“We’ve got enough talent in the team to beat anybody, but we seem to be relying on too few.
“We just need to find a way to execute a game plan.”
Even the umpires were in his sights after the match. With his side making a late fightback with the bat, he believes two questionable decisions went against it.
He was particularly displeased with an lbw decision on Hamish Winter-Irving, who was leading the Bulldogs’ charge in the middle order.
“I don’t like using the umpires as any sort of excuse,” Chapman said. “But we got a couple of rough decisions at a time when we were really hanging by a thread.”
Footscray Edgewater had won the toss and sent Kingston Hawthorn in on a pitch that helped bowlers early on. It had the desired result with the Hawks in trouble at 4-59.
But the good early work was undone when they dropped Hawks’ top-order batsman William Tavare. Tavare, an English import, went on to score 51 and turned the game in a 62-run partnership with compatriot Jack Taylor (39).
“Their two English guys batted nicely in the middle,” Chapman said. “They really dug in.”
The Hawks finished with 9-195 off 50 overs.
Footscray Edgewater made a flying start, advancing to 69 for the first wicket before captain Dean Russ fell for 44, sparking a major collapse. The Bulldogs lost 4-1 and were eventually bowled out for 160.
