The Queen’s Birthday long weekend bye came at the wrong time for Westmeadows.
After a slow start to the Essendon District Football League division 1 season, the Tigers have started to show some better form.
While they haven’t got the wins on the board, they have tested some of the better teams.
Tigers coach Grant Smith said it was frustrating to have the week off just when they were starting to build some momentum.
“The last six quarters of football have been our best footy for the year,” he said.
“Our third quarter against Craigieburn wasn’t bad and we came over the top of them.
“Against Airport West we were in the game all day.”
Smith said they expected a slow start to the season and that everything was going to plan.
The Tigers currently sit sixth with two wins and fives losses, having played all but one team.
Having lost seven senior players from last season, they replaced most of them with younger players.
There was also a lot of attention off field early on for the Tigers with the media surrounding former AFL player Dane Swan.
“We had a rocky start with such a young list,” Smith said.
“We’ve been getting so many young kids coming through.
“The last three weeks we’ve had a core group of 20 players and everyone is getting used to their roles and understanding their jobs.
“We wanted to be around the four to seven mark [on the ladder] at this time of the year and we are.”
Smith said the likes of Braydon Hardstaff, Joshua Hale and Jackson Williams were three youngsters who were starting to step up.
Heading into the second half of the season, Smith said the biggest thing they needed to work on was consistency.
“Week to week and even within games we need some consistency,” he said.
“As you’ve seen with our results. We took it up to Airport West but were smashed by Hillside.
“We lost the first quarter to Craigieburn [by 42 points] but then won the rest of the game.”
Smith said if they can continue on what they’ve been doing the past couple of weeks they were hopeful of rising up the ladder.
This week they face East Keilor, which has just one win for the season.
“We’re going to load up in the second half of the season,” he said. “If we can be more consistent in games we can hopefully win more games in the second half of the season.”
In other division 1 matches this weekend, Craigieburn hosts Taylors Lakes, Oak Park faces Jacana and Tullamarine and Airport West face off in the top of the table clash.
In premier division, Greenvale faces Essendon Doutta Stars.
