Tara Murray
Burnside Heights’ season is still alive, just, in the Essendon District Football League division 2.
The Bears sit two games outside the top four heading into the split round and will need everything to go right in the last four weeks to to play finals.
Bears coach Cole Harvey said it was pretty exciting to have so many teams still alive at this time of the season.
The Sunbury Kangaroos also sit two games outside the top four, with not much percentage separating the two teams.
“I was speaking to Shanon [Carroll, Sunbury Kangaroos coach] and we were saying we both still have a heartbeat,” Harvey said.
“It’s pretty exciting run into finals for all sides.”
The Bears returned to the winners list in their most recent match, beating East Sunbury, before a bye on Saturday.
Harvey said it was a much needed win having dropped their previous four matches. He said East Sunbury had shown improvement in patches, but every other club had taken steps as well.,
The Bears, like many others in the competition, have gone with youth, which Harvey said was exciting for the competition. He highlighted the strong under-18s coming out of Hadfield and what Coburg Districts had been doing too.
Harvey said he wasn’t sure whether the bye had come at the right time, with momentum an important thing in football.
He said it would give some players with some sore bodies the opportunity to have a break.
For Harvey, in his first season as coach, he was thrilled with the progress the group had made.
“I’m very happy with how things are going,” he said.
“Our biggest losing margin is 23 points, the first time we played Taylors Lakes. We lost to Sunbury Kangaroos by 10, Coburg Districts by eight and Taylors Lakes by 17 the second time.
“We are thereabouts. We’ve made some good games already this year.”
The Bears next week face Hadfield on Saturday.
Harvey knows they have a tough run home, but said it would be exciting to possibly see the race for finals go right down to the wire.
“We have Hadfield, Oak Park (first), Sunbury Kangaroos (sixth) and Coburg Districts (fourth),” he said.
“Coburg has a great win on the weekend and it will be a really interesting last month.
“It could come down to the last two to three matches, It’s really exciting for the competition.”
