VICTORIAN Tigers men’s coach Jeff Barrow has blasted his team after its 7-6 National League victory against Sydney Uni Lions at WAVES yesterday.
Despite the win and remaining undefeated on top of the ladder, Barrow wondered how his team nearly lost the game after thrashing them by 18 goals (20-2) on Saturday.
“I wasn’t very happy with our game,” he said.
“Our shooting ratios were terrible, we defended really well but we have certain objectives in every game and we probably achieved two out of four.
“I don’t think our guys prepared well enough but credit to the opposition, we knew they’d come back hard.”
It was a lacklustre start to the first quarter from both teams with several shots missing the goals.
It took Tigers man mountain Ryan Moody to break the deadlock late in the first quarter and the score stayed 1-0 at the first break.
A more physical Tigers team stepped it up a notch in the second quarter courtesy of some sharp shooting from Australian captain Sam McGregor and British international Scott Carpenter.
They helped their side to a 4-2 lead at half-time and it seemed as though the Lions, who are seventh on the ladder, were tiring.
But any signs of another big loss were shelved in the third quarter when Sydney Uni’s Samuele Avallone put away his second five-metre penalty of the game.
That goal and another from Marco Bartolocci as well as the exclusion of Matthew Martin on three major fouls gave the Lions a second wind.
At three-quarter-time the score was 6-5 to the Tigers.
But with the onset of fatigue, goals were hard to come by and the last quarter finished at 7-6 to give the Tigers their 14th win for the season.
In the earlier women’s game, Sydney Uni Lions (ninth) defeated Victorian Tigers (fifth) 10-9.
On Saturday the same teams played out a draw.
The weekend’s National League games are the first played at WAVES.
They topped off a big weekend in water polo with the Victorian Junior Club Championships also played at WAVES.
In the under-14 girls’ final, Northside defeated Albury while Albury won the under-14 boys’ final against Richmond.
In the under-16 finals, Essendon defeated Sharks (girls) and Melbourne Collegians beat Richmond (boys).