Tough fixture leaves Dragons battle-hardened

BELL Park coach James Saker believes a demanding fixture has hardened his side for another finals push, with the Dragons entering the mid-season bye confident their best football is still to come.

The Dragons head into their first break after 11 straight weeks of football on the back of three consecutive wins.

Sitting 7–4, Saker said the record reflected the difficulty of their opening draw.

“We’re pretty happy,” he said. “We’ve had a pretty difficult draw and a bit of adversity with our injuries.

“To finish off with three straight wins, I think that’s a fair enough indication of where we’re at.

“We think we’ve got plenty to improve on in the back end of the year to hopefully push towards another finals campaign.”

Bell Park has already faced most of the competition’s leading sides, playing current top-four teams South Barwon and St Joseph’s twice, while also taking on ladder leader St Mary’s, second-placed Newtown & Chilwell and fellow top-six side Colac.

The run home does not get any easier, with another meeting against the Tigers and Mary’s, plus a clash with the Eagles, still to come.

Rather than viewing it as a disadvantage, Saker believes the demanding fixture has prepared Bell Park for the challenges of September.

“If we’re going to make finals, we’re definitely going to earn it,” he said.

“We’ve been hardened by our draw to this point. It’s got us really clear on what we need to do to be a good team.

“And we’re not shying away from it. We know we’re going to have to win our fair share of games in the back part of the year to contend, but I think that’s the way it should be.”

After falling in elimination finals in each of the past two seasons, Saker believes Bell Park has the game style to break through this year.

“In both of those finals, we played extremely well and came up just short,” he said.

“I think the teams we’ve been defeated by have both gone into play grand finals.

“To me, it indicates that our style and our system will stack up in September if we’re good enough to get there. And once we’re there, I think in this competition, anything can happen.

Bell Park returns from the bye with an away clash against winless North Shore.