West Preston coach Frank Raso says the Northern Football League side playing top-five football
West Preston coach Frank Raso says his team is on track for a top-five Northern Football League finish after beating an under-strength Bundoora.
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WEST Preston-Lakeside coach Frank Raso says his team is playing well enough to be considered a finals threat.
The Roosters jumped into the Northern Football League Division 1 top-three with a 23-point win over Bundoora on Saturday, marking the second time they had beaten the reigning premier in 2014.
Raso downplayed the significance of the 16.9 (105) to 12.10 (82) victory, saying Bundoora was without stars including Cameron Cloke and Ricky Dyson.
He said West Preston’s depth remained an area of concern after it was exposed in a heavy defeat to Macleod in Round 9.
“It was the first time we really got blown away, which was the disappointing thing,” Raso said.
“The first half we were competitive, but the second half our contested ball was really poor.
“It was just one of those one off games. We haven’t had any of them this year and we hope we don’t have another one again to be honest.”
Glenn Robertson continued his resurgence with five goals, taking his season tally to 21 from nine games.
Raso said Robertson had benefited from a meeting with the club’s coaching staff earlier this month where they urged him to place less pressure on himself and focus on enjoying football. Gary Moorcroft kept the Bulls in Saturday’s contest in the first half, giving Trav Stevens the run-around to head to the main break with four goals.
Michael Batey was given the task of minding the former Essendon goalsneak after half-time, keeping Moorcroft to two second-half goals.
Raso said West Preston could be without at least four senior regulars through injury until after the next NFL bye on July 12.
“We’re there to play finals, we know we’ve got four of our last five games away,” he said.
“We’re not going to try and raise the bar too high, we want to play finals and if we win enough games to be top-three then fantastic.
“At the moment I think we’re playing as a top-five side, not a top-three side.”
West Preston-Lakeside’s next assignment is a trip to Eltham Central Park to tackle the Panthers this weekend.
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