CASTLEMAINE coach Derrick Filo says there’s no hiding from his side’s ugly scorelines – but they can look better going forward if the Magpies improve their ball use and cut down turnovers.
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“The thing that is really hurting us at the moment is our ability with the ball and we’re just turning it over far too often,” Filo said.
“We’re winning enough of the ball, but we’re just not using it effectively and getting hurt on the counter-attack.
“That becomes a double whammy for us in that we’re not scoring and the turnovers are costing us goals.”
After opening their season with a 39-point victory over Maryborough, Castlemaine has lost its past seven games by an average of 122 points.
And it doesn’t get any easier on Saturday against the second-placed Golden Square, which has among five inclusions the return of co-captain Jack Geary.
The Magpies’ side includes reigning best and fairest Tommy Horne, who is back for a week due to Box Hill having the VFL bye.
“There’s no doubt the short-term results at the moment are frustrating, but we’ve gone down the path of investing games into kids who are going to be very good Bendigo league players,” Filo said.
“Darby Semmens, Zac Denahy, Joel Smith from Newstead, Braidon Blake… you look at Kal Huntly, he’s still only 20 and probably going to be the dominant player in the competition in a couple of years.
“That core of players are going to be very good going forward and we’ve probably sacrificed a bit of experience this year to give those guys an opportunity.
“The results at the moment are frustrating, but over the past six or seven weeks we’ve seen some talent in our younger brigade. But we need to get some consistency and use the ball better.”
