Cats back in form with triumph over Mounts

“The doubt started to creep in about how well we were going and what was sort of happening on field and so forth, because we’ve got lots of good things off the field,” Fiske said.

“Our reserves are going well, our thirds are going well, but the seniors weren't able to perform, so it was nice to put it all together on the weekend.

“We made a couple of tweaks to the way we wanted to play footy, and that seems to have made a big difference to our performance and also the end result.”

LBU started slowly at the weekend, finding itself down midway through the first term, but it evened up the scores by the first break.

However, the second quarter saw the Cats decimate the opposition, slamming home seven goals to one to take a 35-point lead into the main break.

“I think we started pretty slow. The first 10 minutes I think they were pretty much on top and we were down by two or three goals and we were able to sort of fight back to even pegs by quarter-time,” Fiske said.

“We felt pretty confident that if we continued to do what we were doing it was hopefully going to turn for us.

“Mounts are a good team, so I think we just took the opportunity when we had the momentum in that second quarter.

“Jeremy Mundie had a fantastic second quarter personally, he kicked a couple of goals, and when … you're efficient going forward, it makes a difference when the contest would've been very tight for the rest of the day.”

Fiske said the stunning turnaround in form was due to the group getting back to basics and putting a heavy emphasis on the contest and pressure.

“I think a lot of it has to do with our leaders and driving the standard which is what we want to be known for and our DNA when you look at Locky footy,” he said.

“I think we just got back to the simple things. Footy is a pretty simple game at the end of the day, so if we can win the contests, and if we don’t win the contests we can put some pressure when it comes to the ball carrier and his outlet kick, it makes a big difference to the way we play footy.

“It was mainly a focus on those two things, and our leaders in particular were the ones that drove that on the field and made a big difference to how we went about it for 120 minutes.”

The Cats head into the bye this week at 2-3, which Fiske said the group was satisfied with. But it knows it will need to replicate its performance from the weekend in almost every game from here on out if it is to match it with the top teams.

“The message for us going forward will be what we produced on the weekend becomes our standard, and what we expect week in, week out, contest by contest, all that sort of stuff,” Fiske said.

“We'll just build from there and we’ll see where the season takes us, because the biggest thing is coming off the ground knowing 22 of us put in 120 minutes of effort together and in the same direction.

“If we can do that we will be in more games than we’re not, and that was something that I guess we take out of it on the weekend — if we can do that, we’re going to be able to match it with some of the better teams in the league, if not beat them as well.”

HDNL

Lockington-Bamawm United notched its second win for the season in as many games at the weekend, triumphing over Mount Pleasant.

The Cats earned a 62-37 win at the Lockington Recreation Reserve courts to leapfrog Mount Pleasant on the ladder into sixth place, level on two wins with Colbinabbin ahead.

LBU has the bye next weekend, but will face a tough task in the undefeated White Hills in its first match back following the week off.