Woodend-Hesket finding its feet after rough start, eyeing strong finish to 2024
Sitting 2-6, last year’s RDFNL grand finalist Woodend-Hesket is looking to blood its young talent and make a strong finish to the season and set up 2025.
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Woodend-Hesket is finding its feet and looking to make a strong finish to the RDFNL season.
Last year’s grand finalist is currently sitting seventh with a 2-6 record after a difficult start.
The only club to play the opening eight weeks of the season without a week off, the Hawks take the next fortnight off with back-to-back byes.
Coach Alistair Rae believes the club is now back in rhythm after pushing premiership contenders Riddell and Romsey to the brink before beating Melton Centrals by 27 points on Saturday.
Sitting only a game out of the top five, Rae is confident his team can make a late push.
“At 2-6 is obviously not where we wanted to be,” he said.
“Our first two games were really poor, in winnable games against Kyneton and Macedon, but the last six weeks have been quite good.
“We’ve obviously won the two and lost two to Romsey and Riddell by less than a goal, if we’d won one or two of those we might be only a game out of the finals or level.
“It is a mountain to climb to get in (to finals) but we’re reasonably happy with what we’ve done the last six weeks all things considered.
“We had such a big turnover of players, we had 15 new guys in the team.
“Those first couple of weeks we didn’t look like a team and since we’ve got to know each other and played a more team brand of footy.”
Losing key players to injury and unavailability has seen Woodend-Hesket field an inexperienced line-up most weeks.
Rae had hoped the likes of Jack Haywood, Blake Laverie, James Wiseman, Harley Giddings and Miles Miranda would play key roles this season but won’t take the field again for various reasons.
Riley Patterson and reigning Defender of the Year Marcus Stapleton could still feature but Patterson has moved back to Darwin while Stapleton is dealing with Plantar fascitis.
“Half the team is still under 21 each week but given that it’s pretty good development,” Rae said.
“Five guys haven’t played a game for us who were meant to and three won’t at all.
“They’re top-line players for us so there’s a big difference when you’re playing 10-11 young guys a week.
“We’re in a reasonable spot to reload next year, keep what we have and get some quality guys in.”
Woodend-Hesket returns to action on June 22 with a grand final rematch against Diggers Rest at Gilbert Gordon Oval.
A Round 16 meeting with Macedon and Round 17 clash with Kyneton could be season-defining before a final round bye.
Rae was looking forward to the final eight weeks of the season and seeing what his young team could achieve.
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“The next eight weeks we’ve got five where we’re close to 50-50 chances and then the other three are against Diggers, Wallan and Riddell,” Rae said.
“Although we showed we can almost beat Riddell, leading all but the last four minutes.”
“We’re looking to have a really positive second half of the year.
“We want to have an attractive finish to the year so it doesn’t look as big of a mountain to climb for players coming in.
“Like we did in 2022, we won eight, lost eight and never got thumped and then obviously made the granny last year, so that’s the plan at the moment.”
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