By Justin Flynn
Modewarre coach Mark Hovey said his side’s win against Barwon Heads was its best four-quarter performance of the season.
The Warriors are back in the Bellarine Football League top five and have a genuine shot at the double chance after a superb 34-point win on Saturday July 27.
The final margin flattered the Seagulls. Modda was stronger in every aspect.
“I guess we’ve had our destiny in our hands since the middle of the year and we identified the block between about round six and round eleven where we just thought that would set our season up,” Hovey said.
“And that’s when we sort of got on that roll and beat Anglesea and Ammos and Drysdale. And ever since then, it’s sort of been up to us and we had that loss against Queenscliff, we weren’t far away from Torquay but apart from that the last nine or ten weeks have been really good.
“It’s sort of opened up third for a couple of sides like us and Drysdale possibly. We could finish anywhere between third and sixth.”
Hovey was forced to make several positional changes with ruckman Zack May and key defender Michael Harper missing.
He moved Tom Hornsey into the ruck on Heads’ star Luke Davis while Matt Farrelly went forward. Connor Joseph stayed forward and booted five goals.
“Tom was really physical and played an outstanding game for us,” Hovey said.
“Selection wise, we had to be creative, but the boys were really open minded about the challenges we threw at them. They were positive about it all and they all played their roles and it was just one of those good days.”
With a logjam from second to sixth on the ladder, Modda faces Newcomb and Drysdale in the final two rounds.
“We’ve got a real focus on the defensive side of our game,” Hovey said.
“We’ll be the first to admit we probably haven’t got some big names like some of the other teams, but the boys understand their role and play their role and from a coaching perspective, I get a lot of joy out of that because they’re trying to do exactly what we’re asking them to do.”
