Tullamarine overcome Craigieburn to maintain touch with the top-five

Tullamarine remains in the hunt for finals after a crunch win over Craigieburn and an off-season recruit who has been hampered by injury is emerging as an x-factor.

Tullamarine celebrates its win over Craigieburn.

Later in the year, the fortnight might be remembered as the point where Tullamarine’s season turned around.

A loss to Roxburgh Park before the long weekend bye meant the Demons faced the prospect of playing catch up for the remainder of the EDFL Division 1 season.

But David Connell’s season secured a massive win on Saturday after overcoming Craigieburn 13.9 (87) to 9.11 (65) away from home.

It was a result which left Tulla one game and percentage in the race for fifth position, with the top-four all but likely set after nine rounds.

“We didn’t really talk about it leading up to the game or anything like that, but I guess myself, I knew how important it was.

“If we lost we would have been three games behind Craigieburn it would have been a fair way to a fair way back from that and probably would have closed the door on it to be honest.

“The last couple of weeks we’ve tweaked some things with how we play, some really minor alterations to our game plan and we probably have trained in a different way.

“There were a few home truths but the week off came at a good time to reset and look at what had and hadn’t been working.”

Tullamarine coach David Connell. Picture:Andrew Batsch

A key factor in the result was five goals from Joel Flanigan in his fourth game of the season.

Returning to the club in the pre-season, Flanigan can provide a point of difference forward of centre when his body is right according to Connell.

“He hasn’t played much footy over the last three years as he’s battled a few injuries,” he said.

“Over the pre-season he had multiple injuries and we just haven’t been able to get any continuity into his body, it feels like it’s the story of our season to be honest.

“He’s played two games in a row now and he’s getting a little bit more confidence in his body. When we brought him in, we knew he could mark it, it was just a matter of getting that confidence.

“Yesterday (Saturday) he was clunking everything and he’s a beautiful kick for goal. We haven’t had a lot of games where him and (Jarrod) Stephens have played together which has allowed us to put Don Micallef behind the footy where he’s probably better suited.

“We were systematically better.”

Connell also sung the praises of ruckman and off-season recruit Michael Sikora who went head-to-head in an “old school” ruck battle with Craigieburn star Jake Carlisle.

“Since the first two games, where he was adjusting to the level, he’s been fantastic,” he said.

“He’s just been getting better and better and I think he’s got a good understanding now of what the league is and the standard and how we need to go about it.

“It was a great battle between those guys. I just felt like over the day he just worse him down in the end. He gave our mids first use and helped give us momentum.”

Connell also credited the mentality of his group after Jake Long’s withdrawal the game and Stephen Vocale’s hamstring injury just after half-time.

“They’ve probably been our best two players all season, it was a real even contribution,” he said.

Tullamarine can give their finals hopes a big boost in the next fortnight with games against Rupertswood and Keilor Park who occupy the bottom two.