Laurimar coach Justin Sherman wants his side to keep a low-key approach, despite consecutive wins against top-four sides.
The Power sit fifth on the Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3 ladder and have surged into finals contention with wins in five of their past six games.
Five unanswered goals in the final quarter helped the Sherman’s chargers stun Panton Hill by 15 points at Cracknell Reserve last Saturday. It followed a 16-point win over South Morang a week prior – where the Power also overcame a three-quarter time.
Despite his side’s red-hot form, Sherman was reluctant to look too far forward.
“We are happy with how we’ve performed in the last two weeks and although it’s a bit cliché, we are just taking it one week at a time at the moment,” Sherman told NFNL.org.au.
“As long as we can control our game style and play 120 minutes of footy, then we believe we are good enough.”
While the young team may be surprising outsiders in only its second season of senior football, Sherman said he has always had belief in the group since taking over the coaching reins from Wayne Sharkie.
“Ever since walking through the doors, I’ve just had this belief about the group,” he said.
“I guess when you have that then building relationships with your players is easier, which has made the group a tight bunch and has helped the cohesion among the group out on the field.
“We know we’re a tight group and we feel like when things don’t come our way, we can fight through that adversity and learn from it which we hope will hold us in good stead come the back half of the year.
“We’ve got a lot of young players in our group and we can’t hide away from that, but if they can continue to develop and stick to our game plan then there is no reason we can’t mix it with the best and become a real threat approaching September.”
Sherman believes Laurimar’s main strength this season has been its ability to not rely too heavily on any individual player.
The Power’s 14 goals were shared by 10 individual goal kickers last Saturday, making them unpredictable when attacking.
Sherman believes team moral and a fight-to-the-end attitude have also been real assets over the past two weeks.
“I believe it’s just been a team effort. I’m not big on relying on individuals, we have our share of talented individuals, but they are playing a team brand of footy,” he said.
“It has shown in the last two weeks obviously apart from beating two top-four teams it has been character-defining wins for our footy club.
“The way we went about it by not giving up even though we found ourselves behind at stages late in games, we never gave up and we found a way to win.
“That’s the most pleasing thing for me is their ability to play right until that final siren.”
Laurimar faces another big challenge in Round 11 when it hosts second-placed Mernda at Laurimar Reserve.
Sherman is confident the Power can continue their winning streak if they continue to do what has worked for them in recent weeks.
“The group has been up and about but we know we have a lot more footy to play and we are focusing on Mernda this week and we don’t see why we can’t get another win.”
