Modewarre coach Mark Hovey says emotion and effort wasn’t enough to down Barwon Heads
With Josh Finch set to play in his 330th match for Modewarre, senior mentor Mark Hovey was able to find the right mix of emotion, execution and method.
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Celebrating the historic achievement of one of the Bellarine’s greatest players while still focusing on execution and method against a perennial BFNL challenger was a little bit of a juggling act for Modewarre coach Mark Hovey.
Four-time Ash medallist and one of the league’s most admired and respected players, Josh Finch, took to the field for his 330th game for the Warriors on Saturday at Mount Moriac Reserve, breaking an 18-year record held by Paul Meesen.
It’s another grand achievement in a glittering football CV, containing a club record 11 best and fairests and co-coaching the Warriors to its sole BFNL flag in 2018.
However, Hovey told this masthead the emotion surrounding Finch’s milestone wouldn’t be enough to get the job done in Round 7 after a promising three-game block which had largely altered its fortunes.
“He’s done it all,” Hovey said of Finch’s impact on the club.
“It was a pretty big day (on Saturday), he’s pretty popular and unbelievably decorated with a lot of individual awards and accolades.”
Hovey said it was a bit of a juggling act to hit the right note against a proud opponent having an iffy season so far.
“We clearly spoke about it in our pre-match meeting, but I didn’t want to go overboard,” he said.
“Emotion and effort wasn’t going to be enough to win the game, we had to execute and still play with a bit of method.
“I think we had a really good mix of understanding the importance of the game in the context of our season, but also understanding the occasion and how historic it was.
“The occasion was huge for a club that’s 140 odd years old, with a lot of history and lot of great people and players going through the club.
“For Josh to break the record yesterday was a pretty historic moment.
“My head hit the pillow with a bit of a smile on my face (last night).”
The Warriors, who started the season 0-3, have got their year back on track after downing big BFNL improvers in Queenscliff and Newcomb, pushed Torquay to 13 points and then beating the Seagulls over the past four rounds.
“The same thing sort of happened last year, we started off we were 0-2 and on the bottom,” Hovey said.
“We identified this next period, the next six games, the middle part of the season is really important to us, we don’t want to be relying on teams to lose come the back end of the season.
“The game (against Barwon Heads) was important in the context of our season, to sort of get going a bit.”
While the BFNL has undeniably tightened in terms of competitiveness, the Warriors face a stiff three weeks to come with games against top four teams Anglesea, Drysdale and Geelong Amateur.
A further highlight from Saturday though was the form of Callan Farrell, who had been restricted to just one reserves game after breaking a bone in his foot in the 2023 elimination final, putting in a BOG performance as part of Hovey’s midfield rotation.
“He gave it away for the year and then we got him going again over the pre-season,” he said.
“I hadn’t really seen him play, but since he’s come back in he’s taken a step forward each week.
“He was a recruit for us, really.
“He’s a bit of a leader out on the field as well, he’s quite vocal. He was outstanding yesterday.”
Meanwhile, key forward Connor Joseph produced his biggest haul of the season with three goals.
However, Hovey said the Warriors had bordered on being one dimensional in the past, now looking to share the load with the likes of Tom Hornsey, Scott Morter, Will Thrum and Ryan Williams for offensive impact.
“He probably hasn’t had the reward on the scoreboard he’s had in previous years (but) he’s contributed in some other ways,” Hovey said of Joseph.
“It’s not about Connor kicking five goals every week.
“He’s going OK, without setting the world on fire.
“In the past we have been a little bit (one dimensional) with Connor, we try to spread the load a little bit and not be too predictable to the opposition.”
Originally published as Modewarre coach Mark Hovey says emotion and effort wasn’t enough to down Barwon Heads
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