Port challenging BNL top teams

DEMONS coach Guy McCleish says beating fifth-placed Newcomb a fortnight ago affirmed to his group they can compete with the BNL A grade top five.

Sixth-placed Portarlington face another top-five test tomorrow (Saturday, June 28) against fourth-ranked Torquay at 1.50pm.

The Demons are chasing their third-straight victory after accounting for Modewarre 50-27 last weekend.

“The girls had a tough month with a couple of the top four or five teams. And especially with the win over Newcomb, we came in pretty confident,” McCleish said of the game against the Warriors.

“But still the comp’s very even, especially the bottom five. So we still had to come to play. We had a slow start, but a good first half, [we were] up by I think it was 22 by half-time.

“So it was really, really good and then allowed me to do some rotations that I normally wouldn’t do.

“It’s good for the girls to have a great win. We’ve worked super hard this season and it was a great reward for their work.”

McCleish said Torquay presented as a great challenge and the Demons lost 52-39 last time they met in Round 5.

“We are improving every week. So we’ve got to quell the influence of Daisy O’Kane, which is going to be the big test,” he said.

“[We’ll do] some more work on Thursday night [on] trying to compete with her and nullify the mids [midcourters] to give her easy goals.”

Goal shooter O’Kane scored 46 goals in the Tigers’ win over Barwon Heads.