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North Geelong Warriors can finally smile again after a drought-breaking 4-0 win over Whittlesea Ranges on Saturday, including a hat-trick to Reardo Luka.
Despite the result coming against a fellow lowly placed opponent, it nonetheless provides a welcome relief for the Warriors, following a barren run of four straight losses.
Coach Ante Skoko said that in order to reverse the recent tide of poor results, the team had to go back to basics, looking to cut out errors from their game and play more direct.
“The last few weeks we’ve played relatively well but haven’t scored, or [we’ve] made errors and were punished, so I think our performances have been getting better and the boys are playing well,” he said.
“We’re starting to the get the basic things right, and it showed today, that when we play simply and quickly that it’s effective.
“When you lose a bit of confidence, things seem to work against you, and I thought the boys realised this week that if you work on the same thing constantly and do the right thing that we’ll get results.”
The North Geelong coach revealed a minor tactical switch for the Whittlesea game was to sit a little bit deeper, whilst still attacking with intent when in possession.
“We didn’t want to work as hard as we have [at just tracking back], we also wanted to be working when we’ve got the ball, so we set up a little bit differently today to try to absorb a little bit more of the pressure,” Skoko said.
“But the intention is never to give anyone too much of the ball, because as you’ve seen in this league, if you give anyone too much ball, you’ll lose. You’ve got to be wary.”
“We try to be positive. The biggest positive here is that it’s our first clean sheet of the season, so it’ll give the back four a bit of confidence.
Skoko also reserved special praise for man-of-the-match Luka, who’d overcome a four-week suspension plaguing his early season to score a hat-trick against the Ranges.
“He played really well today, he plays that role well,” he said.
“Unfortunately he got sent off earlier in the season and got four weeks.
“He’s coming back now and showing his quality.”
Providing a summary of a topsy-turvy NPL 1 season so far, the North Geelong mentor stated his 8th placed side were not too far off the pace, playing well despite results often not going their way, including a few narrow losses by a solitary goal.
With a much brighter outlook on the coming weeks, Skoko believed each game was up for grabs.
“We’re just trying to find our way and against certain teams we don’t match up well, or most of the games we’ve lost by a goal, usually by poor decisions.
“Last week was just a poor clearance that hit the back of a player and landed at their players feet.
“We’ve had many games where we’ve been leading until late and had loss of concentration, maybe a bit of inexperience has cost us.
“You’ve got to be realistic. It’s very hard early on to know who the better teams are, and I think the funny thing with this league is that anyone can pretty much beat anyone.”
North Geelong Warriors host the Moreland Zebras on Saturday afternoon, harbouring hopes of climbing the ladder with a second consecutive win. Kick-off at Elcho park is scheduled for 3:00pm.