The Roosters are still searching for their first win of the Victorian Football League season, but for the developing side it should not be judged purely on wins and losses.
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It hosts Essendon on Sunday and will be looking to close the 38-point gap that separated the two sides in round 7.
But following the 188-point belting on round 1, the 2017 season looked to be a slow demise for North Ballarat. While it is still without victory, coach Marc Greig says there have been some positive improvements in its performance over the first half of the year.
A change in its defensive systems, opting for more of a zone defence rather than one-on-one, is one that is beginning to pay dividends.
“Changing the way we defend as a group, that has helped keep scores down on a few games. But it’s also helped us kick goals...when the ball’s in our front half of the ground, because of the way we’ve set-up, it’s given us more turnovers,” Greig said.
While its clearance work has improved - despite losing the hit-out count by over 40 on a weekly basis. Over the last month, the Roosters have broken even, give or take, in the clearance count – a solid effort considering the lack of a seasoned ruckman.
“That’s something we’ve put a fair bit of time into...teams aren’t slicing and dicing us as much in the midfield as they were in the early part of the year.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Roosters is believing it can not just compete, but are good enough to beat a VFL side.
Greig said the group’s mindset was positive, but felt its first quarters were crucial for it to maintain that belief throughout matches.
“The facts are we’ve actually had the opportunities, but we haven’t been able to put the score on the board early to give ourselves a better chance to be in front.
“The boy’s mindset is still ‘we’re good enough to win a few games in the back-half of the year’.
“Effort will get us a fair way, but we need that polish at some point to kick the goals.
“We just don’t have the luxuries to have that key forward up in the forward line.”
Essendon’s line-up is full of AFL experience including Brent Stanton and Craig Bird while it’s tall timber will cause problems with Matthew Leuenberger and Shaun McKiernan. While East Point’s Nick Hind and Carngham-Linton’s Nick O’Brien are also named.