UP AND DOWN

By Matt Fotia

Mount Evelyn have plenty of room for improvement after an inconsistent first few months of the Hallam and Bayswater Truck Centres Division One season according to Senior Coach Mark Fisher.

The Rovers sit fourth on the ladder with six wins and five losses and are coming off an impressive come-from-behind three point victory over an inaccurate Pakenham outfit at the weekend, 8.3(51) to 6.11(47). 

The Rovers trailed by 11 points at halftime before kicking six goals to three in the second half to grab just their second win over a fellow top five side for season 2019. 

Fisher says the Rovers were able to take away Pakenham’s ability to move the ball freely in the second half with an increase in pressure, before taking advantage of the weather induced territory battle to pinch victory.  

“We took away their want and ability to shift the ball around the contest and that took away one of their main weapons,”

“We haven’t been able to bring it (pressure) on a consistent basis (this year), but it came to the fore in the second half and evened the game out,”

“It ended up just being a territory battle and in the fourth term it was probably 50-50 but ended up our end at the backend (of the quarter) and we got over the top of them.”

Pressure on the ball carrier is a much spoken about prong in Fisher’s game plan, and whilst they haven’t been able to maintain the necessary levels all season, Fisher believes it’s been the Rovers ball use that has let them down more than their fluctuating pressure levels this season. 

“It’s a big part of our gameplan, but it’s not solely what it’s based around, it’s how we get the ball the ball back, but it’s what we do when we get the ball back that’s been letting us down.”

Despite having lost on both occasions they’ve played on bigger grounds, Fisher refuses to buy in to the big ground little ground theory regarding his unit. 

“I don’t buy into the big ground, little ground thing, we can and we need to do it (the gameplan) and sustain it for long enough.”

It’s been an up and down year for the Rovers as they’ve run the undefeated Monbulk close on two occasions, defeated the second and third placed sides in Pakenham and Doveton, but also lost to the bottom of the ladder Warburton Millgrove in round eight by two points. 

Fisher has put this erratic behaviour down to the mental immaturity of his young side, who are yet to hit their straps in 2019. 

“It’s more the mental side of it, we’re plenty fit enough and we aren’t mentally weak, it’s just young blokes learning to stick at it for longer and we’re progressively getting there,”

“We’ve got truckloads of room for improvement.”

“Everyone else will probably say the same thing, but everyone else is going and going consistently whereas we are very inconsistent,”

“If we can get some consistency, that’ll be the big difference for us.”