EFL 2019: Wantirna South scores first win since Round 3

Wantirna South arrested a worrying form slide with a five-point win over Knox, but it could be without captain Luke Williams for the rest of the season.

Wantirna South captain Luke Williams. Picture: Adrian Waller

Wantirna South started the season 3-0.

But it had to wait until Round 10 for its next win after a five-point victory over Knox on Saturday.

The Devils’ only premiership points in that six-game stretch came from a draw in Round 5 against Mooroolbark, leaving it in a logjam of teams contending to play finals but also fighting to avoid relegation.

Four of the bottom five teams are separated by only 1.87 per cent and the relegation slot has changed hands three times since Round 6, with Knox now holding up the of the Division 1 table.

But Wantirna South’s hopes of playing finals for the first time since the 2016 grand final have been dented by the news captain Luke Williams could miss the rest of the year.

The Chandler medallist suffered a facial fracture in the Round 9 defeat against Doncaster East.

Wantirna South coach Steve Cochrane said Williams could miss “anywhere from four to six weeks to maybe the season”.

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He is yet to find out if he will need surgery.

“He’s a quality player and has a fairly big impact on the game, especially in these conditions where you’ve got bigger bodies,” Cochrane said.

“Our boys took on the responsibility and I was really proud of the way they went about it.”

It’s set to be a stressful final two months of the season as sides jostle for finals position, with the threat of demotion also hovering.

Wantirna South is just half-a-game outside the top five but it needs to bank wins in the second half of the year to avoid the drop.

Cochrane said to win without Williams would give his side a boost.

“It certainly gives us a bit of confidence but with games being so tight, and they’re going to be, we’ve just got to try do our best to win each week,” he said.

“If you lose, you put yourself back in the mix for relegation but if you win you put yourself in the mix for finals.

“It’s going to be an interesting final eight weeks, which makes it good in some ways.”

Scores were level at three-quarter time at Knox Gardens Reserves only for the Devils to have their noses in front at the final siren, 9.6 (60) to 8.7 (55).

Cochrane said his side’s contest work proved to be the difference.

“It was probably just our hardness around the footy, it was stoppage after stoppage, contested footy, it wasn’t very pretty,” he said.

“It was just surge the footy and another stoppage and who could actually get some clean touches.

“With eight rounds to go, it sort of puts us back in the mix for finals I suppose.

“We’ve just got to beat the sides around us. We’ve got Bayswater next week … it’s a pretty big game for us.”

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