Max Hatzoglou
Melton South coach Heath Pritchard is looking for more competitiveness from his side after losing its opening game of the season by 80 points to neighbouring club Melton in the Ballarat Football League.
“At the moment after losing the first game by 80 points, our only goal is to actually be really competitive in the next few weeks,” Pritchard said.
“Obviously, we’re going to try and turn that around really quick and start winning some games of footy and if we can get on a roll, we’ll see where it eventuates but at the moment our biggest focus is to be really competitive as a group in the way we go about playing our footy.”
Reflecting on the game, Pritchard gave credit to opposition side Melton but was pleased with what his side were able to produce at times.
“Look obviously Melton are a really good side that have been in the top three in the last five or six years so we obviously wanted to be more competitive than what we were so we’re a bit disappointed with that,” he said.
“We thought there were parts in the game that we played really well but unfortunately when they got on top of us at different times, they really put us to the sword.
“Dylan Jones played in the ruck and did a really good job so that makes a difference to us having a really good ruckman in the team.
“So we’re looking forward to our on-ballers being able to gel with him going forward.”
Pritchard said local clubs had been challenged in retaining players due to covid and welcomed players who were interested in playing to join the club.
“Anyone’s always welcome to come down and train, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
“Obviously, once the season starts numbers tend to be pretty good but with things like Covid, injuries and all those different things, you can never have too many people playing for your club.”
Melton South will to take on Ballarat in round two this Saturday, who lost by two points in their first game to Bacchus Marsh.
Results: meltonmoorabool.starweekly.com.au/sport/
