The congratulatory formalities done after notching their first win of the season on Sunday, Workies coach Andrew Farmilo urged his players to step up.
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It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy with their performance in their grand final rematch with Kiwis, but rather stemmed from a reasoning that quickly became clear with a glance at the scorecard.
Three of Workies four goals in the 4-1 victory over the reigning premiers were scored by Ehren Hazell.
Well-beaten in their two previous games, when asked whether Hazell’s inclusion was the difference on Sunday, Farmilo replied yes.
“We scored off virtually every penalty corner,” he said.
“If you can score off your penalty corners it’s such a huge advantage. It was almost to the point the last few weeks that it wasn’t worth getting a penalty corner.”
But it wasn’t just what he brought to their corner battery.
Being able to play Hazell at the back made a huge difference to their defence, and having the extra running of him and Jack Cruickshank also made their attack more potent.
But as Farmilo pointed out they won’t always have them.
“The guys have got to step up and work hard at their own game. They can’t just rely on these guys,” he said.
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Kiwis captain Josh Worpel said they weren’t “smart enough”.
“The first half we were pretty good I thought, we held possession well a lot of the time and had a lot of bodies working off the ball,” he said.
“The second half we tried to go one-out too much and were making simple turnovers.”
Against a side like Workies you can’t afford to do that, he said, they will hurt you on the counter, which they did.
They still did have some chances but they weren’t able to take them.
But Worpel wasn’t too perturbed by the result.
Given that they are such a young side, he thought it might be a good thing for them in the long run.
