Dillon Viojo-Rainbow was one of his side’s most impressive performers as the Northern Blues went down by 40 points to Sandringham on the weekend.
Viojo-Rainbow kicked his first batch of three goals as a Blue while collecting 23 disposals in a game where the Zebras proved too good for Northern.
The 20-year-old return to form on the weekend, after rotating in recent weeks between an inside and outside midfield role as well as off half-back.
Following a quiet start to the game, Viojo-Rainbow said the three-goal tally meant little given the result come the end of the match.
“I had a slow start so I re-gathered at half-time and thought ‘How can I influence this game?’,” Viojo-Rainbow said.
“I just got on my bike as much as I could and tried to influence as much as I can: three goals isn’t bad but you want the team winning first and foremost.
“The three goals don’t matter too much to me personally: the main thing is doing everything we can to knock off Collingwood next week.”
After a solid opening quarter, the Blues were no match for a rampant Sandringham, which kicked five goals to one in the second term to take a 36-point lead into the main change.
Viojo-Rainbow said the side fell into old habits from earlier in the season, where an inconsistent quarter of football came back to haunt Northern.
“When you give teams leads, it’s always going to be hard to win games of football if you give them a five-goal head-start,” he said.
“We did it against Port Melbourne and Collingwood earlier in the year when we try to wrestle it back, it took us until the second half to get going.
“It’s a good learning curve for the boys. You’ve got to come out firing from the start. We’ll review it heavily and we’ll look forward to next Saturday.”
The loss against the Zebras was the Blues’ first loss in over a month, with their next clash to come against the in-form Pies on Saturday afternoon.
Senior coach Josh Fraser said the form of Viojo-Rainbow was encouraging, but it was the first step in the development of his game.
“He showed some good signs. There are still areas of his game he needs to work hard on: there were a few things I thought he could’ve done better,” Fraser said.
“Pleasingly he found a bit of the ball and was able to go forward and hit the scoreboard. We’ll continue to challenge him and we’ll keep rewarding him for the good stuff.
“He probably took a step forward on the weekend but he’s also got some strides to make up in other areas of his game.”
The Blues will head to the Holden Centre from 4pm on Saturday, with the match acting as a curtain raiser for the AFL clash at the MCG later that night.
