Jacana Jaguars fight to ‘ugly’ win

Beau Naim, fending off Ayden Smith, is relishing his leadership role at the Jaguars. Photo: Shawn Smits EDFL Senior Div 2 East Sunbury v Jacana. Jacana's Beau Naim and East Sunbury's Ayden Smith. Picture Shawn Smits.

Jacana knows it needs to work on its consistency to be in the mix come finals time in Essendon District Football League’s division 2.

Now fifth on the ladder, the Jaguars at times have gone missing in games, and it’s cost them.

The sides north on the ladder have made the Jaguars pay dearly – they have been on the end of some heavy defeats and coach Aaron Collins says the players know they need to be better for longer.

“It’s frustrating that we can’t play good football for four quarters. We can do it for a couple of quarters,” Collins said.

“Our best game for the year was against Roxburgh Park when we played as we had in training.”

On Saturday, it wasn’t a pretty game but the Jaguars took the points from East Sunbury.

Collins, in fact, described the 7.11 (53)-4.8 (32) win as “ugly”.

“We weren’t very happy from start to finish,” he said.

“We weren’t clean with the ball. They scrapped it out and made it a very contested game.

“I thought we would get them on the outside run, but that worked in their favour.

“We put a man behind the ball in the third quarter.”

Beau Naim was named best on field.

“He’s enjoying his footy and has taken on a leadership role,” Collins said.

“He said that as part of the deal when Naim came back to the club was his wish to be a leader.

“We have dual captains and he’s loving having the captaincy.

“He’s heavily tagged every week and I don’t think he has been beaten.”

Collins said the club believed it had a role to play in finals.

“We’re very disappointed as we wanted to be at least second or third,” he said.

“After the first seven rounds, we wanted to be 5-2, so as a side, as a whole, we are disappointed with where we are.”

He said finding different avenues to goal was one thing players needed to work on.

“We need to kick more goals,” he said. “The last few weeks, we’ve been leaking goals, so we need to tighten that up.”

In the only other EDFL game at the weekend, Avondale Heights defeated Airport West in premier division.