Hancock’s 10 sinks Tigers

RED CLIFFS: Jack Parker, Robert Provan, Player, William Hand, Lachlan Marwood, Toby Weightman.

A DYNAMIC 10-goal performance from coach Wade Hancock helped drive his Wentworth team to a convincing win against Red Cliffs at Quandong Park on Saturday.

The league leaders remain undefeated and their 6-0 start to the season had many of the Wentworth faithful scratching their heads as to when was the last time the club had started a season so well.

Despite going into the game without the services of last week’s match-winning key forward Jackson Ferguson, who had work commitments, Wentworth was never really headed in this match.

Red Cliffs started well, kicking the first goal and kept the Roos goalless for the first 10 minutes of the match, but once Wentworth had adjusted to the tricky wind conditions, they were able to find some fluency with the ball in hand.

Kicking to the scoring end, they were able to quickly pile on six unanswered goals, three of which came from the boot of Hancock and suddenly the margin had extended beyond five goals.

Red Cliffs battled valiantly in the second quarter and were able to stem the bleeding somewhat but struggled to exert any scoreboard pressure. The Tigers were only able to kick one goal despite having the use of the breeze.

All but unsighted in the first quarter due to field position dominance, the Wentworth defence were called into action and held up well. Cleve Westley and Andrew Wall repelled many of the Tiger’s forward forays and were able to distribute and utilise the dash of the likes of Frank Chirchiglia, Cambell Davison and Jack Carter to break the lines and cover the ground as they worked the ball into the wind. The Roos scored four goals for the quarter to extend the margin beyond eight goals at the long break.

The third quarter was similarly hard-fought. Up until the time on period each team had kicked just 2 goals as the ball rebounded between the arcs. Wentworth lost ruckman Nick Jensen to a groin injury, which resulted in Aaron Duck being thrown into the ruck. Released of his defensive role, Duck thrived in the ruck and used his ability to cover the ground and dominate in the air to good effect. Hancock commented on Duck after the game.

“He has always had the tools, but just hasn’t had the confidence. In the ruck, he was giving us first use and his follow up was really good as well. He’s been a shining light for us.”

As had been the case in the first half, the closing stages of the third stanza were when the Roos were able to exert their scoreboard ascendency, kicking three goals in the time on phase to again win the quarter and extend their lead.

With a 71-point three-quarter time advantage, Hancock put it on his team to try to accomplish an elusive 100-point victory. With seven consecutive goals, Hancock’s tenth the last of those, Wentworth seemingly had achieved this aspiration, with 106 points separating the teams. However, to Red Cliff’s credit, they ran out the game well and kicked the last four goals of the match to reduce to final margin to a slightly more face-saving 82 points.

Post-game, Hancock was pleased that things had gone to plan. ‘The pleasing thing is we have a plan before the game and our ability to execute that plan at the moment, I’m really proud of the six and zero start, Hancock said. ‘I’m aware of the fact that we have to enjoy these moments because they’re not always going to stay like this, but we have to stay humble and hungry and keep fighting week in, week out.’

Despite the heavy loss, Red Cliffs coach Chris Lee wasn’t too displeased. ‘I’m really happy with the effort. I told the guys not to look at the scoreboard. We’re a young side that didn’t give in. We came back a bit in the last quarter which gives us something going forward to hang our hat on. So I’m happy.’