Woodend-Hesket may be coming off its biggest win in years, but Hawks coach Ross Sleight says it means nothing if they can’t keep the momentum going.
The Hawks have had a disappointing start to the season, with just two wins, which have come against two of the bottom sides of the competition.
In their most recent game the Hawks dismantled a struggling Broadford by 186 points, with their most complete performance of the season.
Coming off five losses heading into that game, Sleight said while they were hopeful of a win, their form hadn’t been convincing.
“To be honest, I wasn’t sure how it would go,” he said.
“We’ve not been playing our best football for four quarters.
“We knew if we brought our A-game we would be fine. We didn’t expect that margin … we didn’t take our foot off the pedal.
“Confidence was a little down after the last few weeks, so it was important to play well for the whole game.”
Sleight said if they had been able to produce the same football they had against Broadford in their other matches, the win-loss record may look a little better.
“The last five weeks we’ve been playing three good quarters and the quarter we’re playing bad is costing us.
“We played Riddell and we thought the game could go either way. We were down by a fair bit at half-time and won the second half.
“Against Rupo it was a fair margin. While against Macedon and Diggers Rest [one and two on the ladder] we lost by about 40 points and played some good footy. It was our first quarter which let us down.”
Having started to find some form, Sleight said the competition bye had come at the wrong time for his side.
He said despite a few niggling injuries and a few players overseas the side was in good shape.
Cam Arnold, who broke his collarbone in round one, returned to the side against Broadford, kicking 8.4.
The Hawks return to the field this week against Rockbank. With several matches against other sides outside the top six coming up, Sleight hasn’t ruled out playing finals.
“When we play our best football we can give anyone a shake,” he said.
“Hopefully we can win those games and play well against some of the top sides and give ourselves a chance of sneaking a few extra wins.”
