COMING off a year that netted only a single win can be a deflating prospect as you enter a new season.
Or, at the other end of the spectrum, it can be a motivator to work harder and succeed the next season.
Heidelberg West has faced that proposition and is beginning to prosper in Derek Shaw’s second season at the helm.
Having won just five games over the previous three seasons, the Hawks currently sit fifth on the Division 3 ladder with four wins. They are just a game outside the top four ahead of a Round 14 showdown with fourth-placed Watsonia.
Shaw said it’s been a promising season given the club’s long injury list.
“I think we have done okay with the players we have,” Shaw told NFL.org.au.
“Young Mitch Reeve in his first year of senior footy has been great in the ruck and has given us a lot of first touches around the stoppages.
“Our leaders Dan Bailey, James McLean-Brunton and Aidan Young have really had a great year. They have been really good consistent contributors every week.
“We have other really good consistent players but I think the way the team has adapted with more confidence this year to the way we want them to play has been very pleasing.”
When times get tough, players tend to take responsibility and shoulder the load in leading the footy club around the park.
It’s these players that coaches really look to for inspiration.
“Definitely the players I have mentioned but other players that have been very good are Kane Moore, Tom Waters, Jason Butera and a couple of the other younger players finding their feet at senior level in Dylan Kennedy and Michael Shanahan,” Shaw said.
Kyl Ewart’s groin injury hasn’t helped the Hawks’ cause as they push into finals contention.
Ewart had kicked 15 goals in the opening five games of the season – including a bag of seven in the 120-point win over Parkside in Round 4 – before suffering the significant injury against Watsonia in Round 7.
“It was an extremely bad tear and he has just started to do some slow jogging,” Shaw said.
“Hopefully he will play again this year but we will just have to wait and see how quickly it improves over the next couple of weeks.
“We can be very competitive but without the likes of Kyl and John Shanahan down forward to kick a winning amount of goals, we are really relying on our midfielders to push forward to kick the majority of our score.
“That has been our problem all year as our backline, even though usually smaller, has been pretty solid and have given great movement.”
The Hawks do face a huge task if they are to feature in the finals, with their remaining five games all against top four sides.
Shaw said it would be a challenging end to the season, but said he was looking for his side to show the same spirit it displayed in its eight-point away win over St Mary’s last week.
“I think it throws down the challenge to us to step up and play the best footy we possibly can,” he said.
“We have set ourselves a task that we will work really hard on the track over the last six weeks of the season and take each game on its merits, and hopefully with that belief in each other we can beat a couple of the sides above us.
“Watsonia is a huge game for us this week not to the fact that we could go even on points but we have struggled with them in the past as they move the ball very well when allowed to their forwards.
“I think our form and our fighting spirit last week against St Marys will be a positive factor to take into this week’s game.”
“We have three or four players to come back into the side so hopefully that will help us with our run and rotations.”
