The Northern Blues had a forgettable day at Burbank Oval, going down to Williamstown by 143 points on Saturday afternoon.
The Seagulls dominated the entire game, walking away 25. 22. (172) to 3. 11. (29) winners.
For the second consecutive week, the damage was done early on with seven goals in the opening 15 minutes.
The Blues only managed the one behind at quarter-time while Williamstown pushed out to a 10-goal lead.
Northern peppered the goals in the second quarter, but only managed seven behinds as Williamstown put through five of their own to put the game completely out of reach.
Williamstown simply didn’t let the Blues near the footy in the first half, dominating the disposal count 231 to 122 (461-260 for the match).
The third quarter was more of the same with Williamstown dominating the play and streaming through the midfield with ease.
They added another four goals in the quarter before Dyson Stevens got the Blues on the board with a goal in his VFL debut.
Williamstown was too well set up down back all day and the Blues weren’t able to get any decent time inside forward 50.
Northern only managed one mark inside 50 to three-quarter time compared to Williamstown’s 17, with the Seagulls rebounding with ease all day.
Classy final-quarter goals to Blaine Boekhorst (13 disposals) and Hisham Kerbatieh (19 disposals, four clearances) were little more than slight consolation on a dirty day for Northern.
Northern came into this game needing to find new avenues to goal, but were unable to get the ball out of the middle to even give the forwards a chance.
Jason Tutt was the most prolific ball winner, racking up 28 disposals for the day with Tim Jones the next best with 22.
Speaking post-match, young Blue Dylan Buckley said the onus was on the playing group for the second week running of poor results.
“We’ve failed to play for four quarters: we might have some good patches and we came up against a good outfit but we need to realise we’re not going to get anywhere if we don’t keep at it for the whole game,” Buckley said.
“Josh and the coaching staff have enormous respect for the players and at the moment we’re letting them down.
“We were second to the ball all day, we need to look at next week now and reset for what will be a big day for the club against Coburg.”
The Northern Blues will need to bounce back against local rival Coburg at Preston City Oval next Saturday afternoon in what could be Brent Bransgrove’s 100th VFL match.
WILLIAMSTOWN 9.6 14.11 18.19 25. 22. (172)
NORTHERN BLUES 0.1 0.8 1.10 3. 11. (29)
GOALS
Northern Blues: Stevens, Boekhorst, Kerbatieh
BEST
Northern Blues: Tutt, Jaksch, Jones, Kerbatieh, Buckley, Silvagni
