RED Cliffs produced a season best performance to pull off a stunning 17-point upset on Saturday against the benchmark of the 2022 SFNL seniors’ competition.
In truth, it was nothing less than the tenacious Tigers deserved as Chris Lee’s troops finally delivered a strong four-quarter display against Wentworth, which suffered their third straight loss after setting the league alight with 11 consecutive wins.
There wasn’t a weak link across all three lines for the Tigers, which went into the round 16 clash at George Gordon Oval in second-last spot with just four wins this season.
Co-captains Vas Tuifao and Jonty Marciano were inspirational in the midfield for the visitors, but the game-breaking player was Peter Tuifao.
In a coaching masterstroke, Lee moved the usual half back into the midfield and then into the forward 50, where Tuifao booted three goals.
The last time Tuifao kicked a major was in round 4 against Robinvale Euston.
“He’s such a good competitor,” Lee said.
“I wanted to try something different. He went into the middle at times, before going forward and marking strongly and kicking a few goals.
“I also thought Jack Parker at half back was really good for us today, giving us good run and drive out of defence.
“He adds an extra attacking component to our game.”
Lee said “the penny’s finally dropped” for his young group, who played like a top-four outfit at the weekend.
“I’m really proud of all the guys. I’ve been looking for this sort of performance for a long time,” he said.
“I want us to be extremely hard to play against, where we consistently fight and scrap it out. I thought we did that for the full four quarters today.
“This has been building over the course of the year. But we haven’t had a game where it all clicked like it did today.”
The Tigers were playing like the Roos did earlier this season when they were consistently putting rivals to the sword.
They had great fluency in attack, starting with Parker’s scything bursts, before the likes of Vas Tuifao and livewire Marciano sent spearing, well-directed kicks into the forward line.
The Tigers were also solid in the back line, where Donovan Bell did a good job in marking Roos’ goal-kicking machine Wade Hancock, who booted three majors on the day.
Two striking features of the Tigers’ play was how they played with both confidence and enjoyment.
Both of these aspects were seemingly missing from the Roos’ game.
Confidence, in particular, is a priceless commodity.
Hancock’s men had it in bucket-loads for the opening 13 rounds. But it certainly fell away in the round 14 loss to Irymple and a number of players clearly lacked both confidence and motivation on Saturday.
Hancock was unavailable for an interview post-game. But senior player Cleve Westley confirmed what was behind the slump for the second-placed Roos, who were again without influential ruckman Nick Jensen at the weekend.
“It’s hard for us as a team at the moment because every other team who plays us has got something to play for,” Westley said.
“But realistically for us, these are essentially dead-rubber games, other than (fighting for) the 1-2 spots.
“It’s disappointing though to have a 100-point turnaround against them (Red Cliffs). We beat them by a stack (82 points) out there (in round 7).
“But I think our motivation is probably lacking a little bit and our leaders need to stand up more.”
Another key player for the Roos, Andy Wall, was also struggling in Saturday’s game as he recovers from COVID.
However, Westley said it was far from doom and gloom for the club, whose A-grade netball side continued their unbeaten march to the finals with a 59-goal rout of the Tigers earlier in the day.
“Alarm bells aren’t ringing for us,” he said. “We’re looking for form, which is more important than ladder position at the moment.
“With a couple of key outs, our balance probably feels a little bit off. But we’re just trying to play around that.
“So, a better balance and better form are what we’ll be looking for before finals.”
RESULTS:
Red Cliffs: 2.1 7.4 8.6 11.8 (74)
Wentworth:4.3 5.5 7.7 8.9 (57)
GOALS:
Red Cliffs: Peter Tuifao 3, Jonty Marciano, Jack Parker, Jed Connolly, Will Hand, Brandyn Galea, Khoder Jackson, 1.
Wentworth: Wade Hancock 3, Jackson Ferguson 2, Sam Cumming, Ben Howard, Chris Wall 1.
BEST:
Red Cliffs Jonty Marciano, Peter Tuifao, Vas Tuifao, Jack Parker, Lachie Sutton, Dion Smith.
Wentworth: Jackson Ferguson, Cleve Westley, James Nunan, Jordan McKinnon, Zavier Littore.
