MILDURA is just a 10-minute lapse shy of stringing together multiple wins, but the Demons are making progress toward playing four-quarter football, says star player Josh Dean.
The Demons secured their first win of the season against South Mildura last Saturday, but after leading by a comfortable five to six goal margin all game, conceded a few late goals to win by 12.
Dean said while a win was important for the young side to know it was making progress, it had demonstrated the ability to challenge most teams this year and just needed to gain more playing time together.
“In five or six games that we’ve played, we’ve been in every single one of them,” Dean said. “We’ve probably been pretty stiff not to have two or three wins on the board already.”
The former Wentworth premiership player and best and fairest winner said he was trying to work out with coach Ilario Cavallo and the older members of the Mildura side how to iron out the 10-minute lapses. But he said there was “no overnight” fix” to the problem.
He said considering Mildura had lost 22 of last season’s 40-player senior squad, including Anthony Matthews, Josh Martin and Jack Bower, it was going to take a while, perhaps the entire season, for the side to gel.
“We’re a work in progress and we’re making the steps in the right direction to be successful,” he said.
Dean, who started the season in the midfield, spent time in the forward line as Cavallo rearranged the “magnets” to turn around Mildura’s on-field fortunes.
The midfielder-turned-forward kicked a goal and was named among Mildura’s best. His performance also earned him this week’s SFNL Footballer of the week award.
While Dean moved forward at times during the 2021 season, his move at the weekend was about leading by example and applying forward pressure.
He said while he was ready to “crash packs, mark, kick goals” for the team, he also used his time forward to provide positional direction to the inexperienced forward line, pointing out where to stand and lead.
The move worked as Mildura produced their biggest score of the season.
Dean relished his fresh start in Mildura in 2021 after playing 134 games for Wentworth, he said it had been a “bittersweet” season for Dean while the side waited for their on-field results to catch up with the hard work they had put in over the preceding eight months.
But he said the team had drawn strength from the pride of the club and its supporters.
“Everyone’s hanging around,” Dean said. “We’re getting really good numbers to training. There’s plenty of people still coming through the gate to come watch us.
“It’s a proud club. We want to show that we can match it with all the top teams. We only lost to Wentworth by four goals and that match could have gone either way.”*** As the Holcroft Lawyers Footballer of the Week, Dean receives $125 from Holcroft Lawyers, 143 Langtree Avenue, Mildura, and is in the running to be the Holcroft Lawyers Footballer Of The Year winner.
