Roosters rebound instyle; take lessons fromfirst round defeat

NORTH Ballarat coach Clint Proctor has hailed his side’s 24-point win over in-form Bacchus Marsh as a ‘great response’ to their season-opening loss to Ballarat.

A fired-up Roosters, determined to make amends for their 13-point loss to the Swans, held the ascendancy for the bulk of the contest against the Cobras on their home deck, running out impressive winners 10.14 (74) to 7.8 (50).

It’s set the scene for a classic confrontation this Sunday at Mars Stadium against East Point, which gave reigning premier Darley the fright of its life at Eastern Oval.

The Kangaroos led by five points early in time-on, before the Devils slammed on five late goals to claim a stirring 28-point win.

North Ballarat, which inflicted the Cobras’ first loss of the season following a pair of stirring wins over East Point and Melton, set up its win with a stifling first half.

The Roosters restricted the Cobras to just two first-half goals, taking a 26-point lead into the main break.

With Brock Leonard and Josh Morris leading from the front and Denver Grainger-Barras (four goals) providing a solid target, Proctor was rapt to be on the board and happy to have built some momentum.

“We didn’t handle the last 10 minutes very well last week (against Ballarat), but we learned from it with some good lessons,” he said.

“I thought we responded well from last week. In the middle, our pressure was much better and our game is built off that.

“We were able to get some good ball movement.

“I thought Josh Morris was really good again; he set things up well from half-back.

“Brock Leonard was really strong inside. I thought all our leaders stood up … (captain) Elliott Lamb.

“As did a lot of our young boys stand up and improve their performance from last week.

“Hopefully they’ll take some good learnings from round 1 into the rest of the year.”

Of the younger brigade, Proctor said Wilbur Shea and Taj Bowman both had some good moments and would only gain in stature as the season progressed.

Just as exciting for the second-year Roosters coach is the flourishing partnership between Jye Lockett and Grainger-Barras in attack.

“They have been great together and working really well,” he said.

“Denver got onto the end of some really good play upfield, but credit goes to Jye Lockett as well.

“I’m sure Jye will get his returns soon and Denver can get up the field and do some hard work as well.”

Bacchus Marsh listed Jack Parente, Ethan Mckercher, Luke Goetz, Jake Owen, Josh Huxtable and Cody Gates as its best players.

Another pleasing aspect of the victory for the Roosters was winning away from home, at a venue and against a team they have struggled with in recent times.

“We’ve had some real issues in the past with Jake Owen and Jake McCreery when he was there kicking bags,” Proctor said.

“So it was probably one of our better performances.

“Hopefully, we can build some belief from it.”

On this Sunday’s opponent, Proctor said: “East Point obviously played well against Darley and were right in it up until half-time against Bacchus Marsh as well.

“The competition is really even this year and this is another of the games that will show us where we are really at.”