Tara Murray
Greenvale received a needed wake up call weeks out from the Essendon District Football League women’s division 1 finals.
Like the past two seasons, the Jets have been one of the teams to beat this season.
A loss to Airport West in the third last week of the season wasn’t something many people saw coming.
Jets coach Troy Newton said the loss wasn’t the worst thing for them.
“It wasn’t a bad thing,” he said, “It highlighted a few areas that we needed to work on.
“We weren’t switched on against Airport West and they beat us around the stoppages and their structures were a lot better than ours on the day.
“To happen it’s good in a way as you learn a lot more from a loss. I’m not concerned about the loss; it highlighted a few things we have to be better at.
Newton said they were happy with how they bounced back against Tullamarine except for some poor kicking in front of goal in tough conditions.
He said the motivation in the group had remained high despite having secured their top two spot many weeks ago.
Newton said they had been able to focus on some things that they would need to take into their first final with Burnside Heights.
“They are a really good contested ball side and really well balanced,” Newton said. “If we are off around the contest they can really hurt us.
“We are yet to have our full side out there together at once. We are getting closer to it now, we’ll have just about everyone available for finals.
The Jets are the only side to have beaten Burnside Heights this season. The Bears lead the head-to-head this year, two to one.
Newton said the two losses they had were in the game for three quarters before the Bears got on top in the middle of the ground.
“We need to match them in the contested ball,” he said. “We can’t give them easy kicks, hopefully we can get them.”
Before the Jets take on the Bears, they face Strathmore-Pascoe Vale in the final round of the season on Friday night.
Newton said despite taking on the bottom side they wouldn’t be taking it easy with no easy games in this division.
