A team-first attitude from the Box Hill Hawks is what has Coach Marco Bello most pleased after his side’s 74-point win over Casey Scorpions on Sunday.
The Hawks shared the scoring load amongst 11 individual goal kickers as they returned to the top of the VFL ladder, but it was their defensive efforts that also had their coach smiling.
“I think the last two weeks especially has been a selfless attitude from everyone.” Bello said.
“There’s probably guys that have come in and out of the game, but as a whole I was pretty pleased with our team defence and also the way we were able to share the footy going forward.”
The win was set up by a dominant third quarter in which the Hawks managed to kick 6.3 to Casey’s two behinds, with Sam Grimley and Peter Lawlor heading the list of goal kickers to finish with four each.
“We had the ability to hit the scoreboard but we weren’t able to stop them, so in the third quarter we kept them goalless which was pleasing and we were able to stop their style of game.”
“We defended them really well in our forward half and when we were able to cause the turnover we impacted the scoreboard, so it was great to see that we were able to get eight scoring shots and limit them to just the two.”
The win now all but cements Box Hill’s place in this year’s finals series, allowing the Hawks to turn one eye to preparing their list for a tilt at a third consecutive grand final appearance.
“We can look ahead and wait and make sure that we’ve got a healthy list,” Bello said.
“But we need to start playing finals football now so that by four weeks time we’ve actually got momentum going into finals… so it’s pleasing that we can start doing that from this earlier period.”
Despite holding a strong position at the top of the ladder, the Hawks are well aware of the task at hand this weekend as they take on Geelong at Simonds Stadium.
“Geelong at Geelong is never an easy task so we know that if we allow them to play their style of football that it’s going to be a challenge,” he said.
“But what I’ve been really pleased with this year is we’ve been able to curtail sides from being able to do that for prolonged periods and once we’ve been able to get on top we’ve been quite efficient going forward."
RELATED
Senior Hawks amongst best in Box Hill win
