Tara Murray
An understrength Diggers Rest overcame the conditions and a poor start to beat Macedon in the Riddell District Football League.
The Burras have just been doing enough to come away with the points in their recent matches and it was the case against the Cats well.
After giving up a nearly five goal lead at the first break, the Burras were able to do enough to come home with an 11.7 (73)-9.9 (63) win.
Burras coach Jamie Lobb said they would take that win.
“It was a challenging game, we’re a bit depleted at the moment,” he said. “It was good for the reserves to get the win with the team they have in.”
Lobb said the first quarter was below their standards and left them a task to get back into the game.
He said the Cats did exactly what they had planned for, but they weren’t able to stop them.
“We kicked the first goal 20 seconds into the game and didn’t score for the rest of the quarter and they had nine scoring shots,” he said.
“We couldn’t get anything going and we were really slow to react. We weren’t zoned in and were made to look second rate.
“We changed a couple of things at quarter time and we applied them after quarter time.”
Lobb said that start was a bit of a reality check that they need to adapt to what is happening out on the field.
After quarter time, the Burras kicked 10 goals to four and played some pretty strong football.
Brodie Meyers kicked three goals for the Burras.
Lobb said Campbell Wearne was really good again, while Justin Tenaglia did the job on Jason Cooke in a really even team performance.
Lobb said they would take a performance like that with the players they’ve got missing at the moment.
Shaun Campbell, Marcus Calvaresi and Luke Delahey all returned to the side.
Mitch Jensen, Mitch Day, Josh Flower, Andre Headberry, Austin Cicero and Taylor Hine are still to come back into the side.
Lobb said that would happen over the next few weeks.
With a number of players out, Lobb has had to put the jumper back on. He played seniors against the Cats and kicked two goals.
“I had to watch my daughter’s grand final and couldn’t make it there for 12pm,” he said. “I was going to run around in the twos.
“I played instead of pulling up a twos player up and leaving them another player down. The more players we get back, means I won’t have to pull on the boots again.”
The Burras sit in second spot, a game behind Riddell.
This week they face Wallan which sits third on the ladder.
Lobb said it would be another good battle.
“They’ve had an influx of players before the clearances closed,” he said. “We’re worrying about us and hopefully we can do a number on them.”
Melton Centrals had the bye.
