DARLEY coach Rod MacPherson was thinking of the bigger picture as he tried to keep the lid on his team’s most comprehensive performance of the season.
Fans piled into the Darley rooms for a raucous rendition of the club song as the Devils celebrated a comprehensive 41-point win against Sunbury.
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MacPherson kept his post-match address short, telling his group to not over-celebrate the win.
The Darley coach has not shied away from being publicly critical of his team after some of its earlier defeats, particularly with regard to inaccurate kicking for goal.
“We’re still chasing our tail for the first half of the year and it will take a real effort to get into the top three and be a genuine threat,” MacPherson said.
“The club’s got a bit of a habit of getting ahead of itself with social activities. We’re coming off a bye, going into a bye, our annual ball is Friday night coming, and the players have got to balance out what they want from the year.
“They enjoy themselves, but without supreme sacrifice you don’t get the result.”
Darley forwards Jake Edwards, Dane Grenfell and, in the final quarter, Mark Hanson all defied the poor conditions to produce against Sunbury’s backline.
“We were disciplined with the direction of the footy into attack, and we kicked our goals from the top of the goalsquare, which is what you need in conditions like today,” MacPherson said.
“We didn’t have a passenger, we kept our concentration and intensity and, particularly in the last quarter, we controlled the footy. We’re trying to inject a bit more run into the group.
“We’ve had a stop-start year with byes and a quirky draw but we don’t go to Ballarat again in the home-and-away.”
The fixture for Darley is a favourable one, with the Bacchus Marsh derby at Maddingley Park, two home games and two trips to Melton remaining. The Devils play only one current top-six team, East Point, in the run home.
