Fitzroy Stars coach Hayden Heta says his side’s upset win over Eltham has relieved some pressure after starting the 2019 season with two consecutive losses.
The Stars went on a big recruiting spree over the summer – bringing in 19 players in response to last year’s disappointing campaign that wielded just three wins.
The expectations for the Stars rose due to the influx of new players, however, the new season didn’t commence in the fashion they would have liked, with tight defeats to Diamond Creek and Thomastown.
But against the odds, the Stars were able to break through for their first win of the season in Round 4, achieving one of the toughest tasks in A Plus Labour Solutions Division 2 – an away win at Eltham.
Heta was extremely impressed by his side’s performance at Eltham Central Park, acknowledging how well his side played across the board.
“On the weekend we absolutely had 22 contributors,” Heta told NFNL.org.au.
“It was very disappointing losing (the first two games), particularly when we held the lead for big parts of the game.
“But losing through disciplinary actions, giving away a lot of 50m penalties that resulted in direct goals was definitely the most disappointing aspect of those losses.
“I certainly felt confident. I felt we needed to get that monkey off the back and that’s what happened on the weekend.”
“We’re certainly not getting ahead of ourselves. Eltham is a quality side, we probably just adjusted to the conditions quicker than they were able to. It might have been a different story on a dry track.”
Heta was particularly impressed by the performance of gun recruit Carl Groth in his return from injury, as well as club legend Lionel Proctor – who returned to the field this season after sitting out 2018.
“Carl Groth was fantastic in the midfield,” Heta said.
“He hurt his hamstring in Round 1, so it was good to see him play so well in his first game back.
“The biggest one for us as a club was probably Lionel Proctor. Age is no barrier when it comes to that guy.
“He’s been absolutely fantastic. He just provides us with great leadership experience and skills out of our backline.
“The other one would be young Jake Firebrace. He’s a community person, has been around the club a long time but never played with the club.
“Just seeing his growth and development over the first three games has been really pleasing. You can see that he’s playing with more confidence and he’s getting better and better as each week goes on.”
Heta said he was happy with the way the new and returning players had fitted in to the club, but believes the side is still a way off gelling fully as a group.
“We were actually quite selective with the players we brought in to the club, as hard as it may be to believe,” he said.
“We certainly made sure they were going to be the right fit with regards to their personality on and off the field.
“We’ve recruited very heavily over pre-season so the side’s changing each weekend with regards to players playing in different positions, which gives us a chance to see where players play their best footy.
“It probably keeps falling back to us being a relatively new side. Playing 15, 16 new players to the club it’s going to take time. It’s probably the players understanding their role, which we’re still a fair way off.”
The Stars face another stern task this weekend when they host undefeated ladder-leader Banyule at Sir Douglas Nicholls Oval.
Heta is under no illusion of the task at hand for his troops and signalled changes could be made with key position players Max Maynard and Josh Saveka available for selection this week.
“They’re certainly the team to beat,” he said.
“We’ll prepare for them the way we have every other team. We’re trying to be as respectful as we can to every opposition.
“They’re probably going to be the tallest side across the board that we will come up against.
“We have to make sure we have the right players in that are going to combat that this week, so we’ll have to play a bit taller down back.
“We have got a couple of players coming back from injury or back from being unavailable from family commitments, so we have a bit of nightmare at the selection table with a couple of key backs available.”
