Gerald Lynch
Despite a winless start to the season, Grovedale is ready to roar ahead of a bottom of the table clash against St Albans in the Geelong Football League.
A combination of injuries and a tough fixture has Grovedale winless after its first six matches, but coach Jacob Spolding said morale has remained high throughout the early stages of the season.
“The playing group has been fantastic,” he said.
“We’ve had 50 to 55 blokes training both nights every week, they’ve just kept turning up trying to improve their footy and get better, hopefully a win’s not too far around the corner.”
Without wanting to make excuses, Spolding conceded injuries have played a part in some undesirable results to start off the year.
“We’ve certainly been riddled with injuries in the first six weeks, no doubt about that,” he said.
“In round three we had five players over 200 centimetres in our team, then by round four we had none of them playing all out injured. We probably haven’t had our full complement of players.
“In saying that, it’s allowed an opportunity for 12 debutants this year, six of which were juniors at the club which is great. With every injury, there’s been an opportunity for someone else.
“They’re not excuses but it’s just fact – we’ve had some injuries and as a result we haven’t been able to play the type of footy that we’ve wanted to.”
While Spolding is looking forward to Saturday’s match against St Albans, he said the group isn’t getting ahead of itself.
“This week’s the same as every other week, hopefully we can play our best footy and limit them from playing theirs, and that’s hopefully enough to come out with a win,” he said.
The Tigers have been a beneficiary of a league-wide bye last week, allowing a host of key players to get themselves right for round seven.
After missing close to a month of football each, Brady Ferguson, Sam Walker, Mitch Schafer, and are all tracking well and looking to put their hands up for selection this week or next.
Ryan Abbott also got through unscathed in Grovedale’s last match after sustaining an injury in round three.
The ruckman enjoyed a full season of football last year and featured in the best 10 times in 18 matches, and will add some much needed height for the Tigers.
The former mature age recruit has been a mainstay in the side since he finished his AFL career with St Kilda in 2020.
The last month of football has been unkind to both teams sitting on the bottom of the Geelong Football League ladder, St Albans has seen an average losing margin of 138 in its last four matches, while Grovedale has suffered an average margin of 85 points.
