Belief building for Bears

19 Jun 2019 by Northern Football Netball League

Lower Plenty coach Ben Turner hopes the upset win over Heidelberg instils confidence in his playing group that it belongs in Meadows Greyhounds Division 1.

A six-goal final quarter helped the Bears score a come-from-behind four-point win over the second-placed Tigers in arguably the biggest upset of the 2019 season.

The result provided a much-needed second win of the season for the reigning Division 2 premiers, ending a six-game losing streak.

“We hope to take some confidence and belief from the win and focus on the next game,” Turner told NFNL.org.au.

“It’s been a lean few weeks so it’s nice to get a win and keep our season up and about.

“We were really disappointing the previous week against West Preston, so much of Saturday was a mental thing for us to provide a better effort and attitude towards the game.

“We probably did that for the majority of the game and then made the most of some opportunities we had in front of goal, which was good.”

After an injury-interrupted year, Tom Keys showed why he’s one of the league’s best players in a best on ground display, while Tom Blake again stood up in Patrick Flynn’s absence.

Corey Sleep continued his fine form up forward, taking several towering marks and finishing with a career-best six goals.

“Corey Sleep has been really consistent this season and then on Saturday produced a pretty handy game, where he kicked six,” Turner said.

“Tom Keys stood up. He’s been out injured for large parts of the season, so it was really good to see Tom play really well.

“Those two had good games on the weekend but players like Ben Paterson, who has been really consistent, and Cam Elmore who has returned from injury this year and has been terrific down back.

“Tom Blake is another who has stood up in the ruck in Patty Flynn’s absence and has been huge. He’s learning so much each week so we can’t ask for much more than what Tommy’s been doing for us this year.”

Turner was also pleased with the performance of debutants Connor Perrett and Andrew White in their first taste of senior football.

Both Perrett and White had been knocking on the door of senior selection for weeks after strong form in the under-19s.

“Both had been going well in the under-19s and whenever you add players as debutants into your team it always generates some enthusiasm and excitement.

“Both Connor and Andrew performed very well so they should be happy with themselves.” Turner said.

Unfortunately, the news is not so good for captain Patrick Flynn, who appears all but certain to miss the remainder of the season with an ankle injury.

Flynn went in for surgery last week, although the club holds slight hopes of getting him back late in the year.

“The likely scenario is that he is done for the rest of the year, but I guess we are holding out some optimism that the surgery will fast track a bit and we might get him back towards the end,” Turner said.

“We don’t really know at the moment, but we have all kind of said to ourselves that at this stage the likely scenario is that he’ll be out for the rest of the year.”

Lower Plenty will hope to back up last weekend’s performance when its hosts Bundoora this Saturday. A win could elevate the Bears off the bottom the ladder.

“We just need to be really competitive and create a seed of doubt, but really I’m just looking forward to seeing how we back up after the weekend’s performance,” Turner said.

“Much like last week’s attitude, we need to come with the effort and really ensure that we throw ourselves into the game and give ourselves a chance.”