How do you nullify Williamstown’s forward line? Which player do you assign your top key defender or best defensive small to at the beginning of a match?
These are a couple of the questions that must have rankled opposition coaches in the Victorian Football League this season.
The Seagulls are ranked number one in the competition for scoring without a true focal point.
When you stop one forward, another bobs up.
The multi-dimensional forward set-up claimed another victim on Saturday, when the Seagulls marched to a 44-point win over a red-hot Essendon at Burbank Oval.
The Seagulls had 11 individual goal kickers, ranging from talls to smalls, keys to crumbers and even the odd goal from midfielders thrown into the mix.
Sam Dunell, the Seagulls’ leading goalkicker with 22 for the season, led the way with three.
The really tall, Nick Meese and Sean Tighe, the tall, Ben Casley and Scott Clouston, the mid-sized, Brett Bewley, and the small, Anthony Anastasio and Andrew Gallucci, kicked two apiece to demonstrate the variety of attacking options the team has at its disposal.
Seagulls football manager Chris Dixon told Star Weekly the unpredictability of the forward line had become an asset.
“It’s an advantage for us,” he said. “We’re not going to rely on one guy to kick 60 goals for the year; we’re going to have a really big spread.
“If someone does have a bad day, and if someone is well held by the opposition, we have a few guys who can step up.”
Where the match was won and lost, though, was in the midfield.
It was a battle of contrasting styles, with hard-nosed Seagulls highly ranked for contested ball and clearances, while the Bombers strength is exhilarating run and carry and disposal efficiency.
On a wet day and with a bit of mud thrown into the mix, the Seagulls’ style thrived.
“We probably felt the conditions favoured us a little bit,” Dixon said. “It was important to win the clearance battle and that went a long way.
“We were really pleased with the way our midfielders were able to put their heads over it and win the ball.”
Meese and Tighe won the ruck battle over AFL-listed Jonathan Giles.
Adam Marcon lapped up the silver service, picking up 11 possessions in the first term before the Bombers assigned a run-with player.
“It was a pretty complete performance by him,” Dixon said. “In the second quarter, they sent [2013 Liston Trophy winner] Jordan Schroder to him, so that’s a real feather in his cap and it goes to show what a strong state league player he’s becoming.”
The Seagulls are now a game and percentage clear of Essendon in second spot and will head into Saturday’s home clash with winless Frankston as unbackable favourites in Clouston’s 50th VFL game.
In the development league, the Seagulls had a 50-point win over Northern Blues, with Jake Owen kicking two in a successful return from an elbow injury.
