Tara Murray
Williamstown was left to rue some missed shots as it seems set for the wildcard round in the Victorian Football League.
The Seagulls are among a bunch of sides fighting for finals spots with only 10 points separating the top 10 teams.
On Sunday, the Seagulls’ hopes of avoiding the wildcard round ended with a disappointing loss to North Melbourne.
After an even first half, the Kangaroos jumped out to a 25 point lead heading into the final quarter.
The Seagulls came hard in the final quarter, but the Kangaroos lead was enough to hold on to win, 11.9 (75)-9.13 (67).
Seagulls director of coaching Jeff Andrews said they weren’t good enough for long enough.
“We played some good footy but it was patchy,” he said. “They got in front and we had some bad kicking and missed a lot of shots on goal.
“It meant we were coming back from 30 points down instead of 12 points.”
Andrews said it was an unusually calm day at Williamstown so the win didn’t have an impact on those shots.
Brodie McLaughlin was the main culprit kicking 0.5.
“There were a lot of kickable ones,” Andrews said of all of their missed shots. “You would normally mark Brodie down for 4.1.
“It was one of those days and it was the difference in the end.”
Andrews said they had worked on a few areas and they had got a lot of it right, it was just about finishing the last piece of the puzzle.
“It’s the bit that you have to get right.”
Joel Fitzgerald had 21 possessions for the Seagulls, while James Cousins and Riley Collier-Dawkins had 19 each.
Andrews said they had a number of good players on the day.
“Corey Ellison kicked three goals and competed hard,” he said. “Tom Downie in the ruck was good and Riley Collier-Dawkins had 10 clearances.
“Luke Parks had 10 intercept marks. He has been sensational this year and had a couple of kids down there with him on the weekend and he really stood up.”
The Seagulls now sit in eighth spot with two weeks remaining.
They have a bye this week before finishing the regular season against GWS.
Andrews said they should get some players back the next few weeks but they need to make sure that they aren’t underdone.
He said for them, finals start in the final round.
“I don’t think there’s any way that plays out that we don’t feature in the play offs,” he said. “We want to finish seventh or eighth and get a home final.”
